Three factors that explain Athletico and Coritiba’s historic campaigns in the Brasileirão

The 2026 Brazilian Championship reserves a special chapter for football in Paraná. After returning together to Série A, Athletico e Coritiba they run campaigns that exceed expectations.

After the 25th round, Furacão occupies third place, with 45 points, while Coritiba appears in seventh, with 37. More than aiming to stay in the first division, the two clubs started to look at bigger goals in the final stretch.

Athletico is consolidated in the dispute for a place in the Libertadores and is still trying to get closer to the leaders. Coxa, in turn, is close to reaching the score considered necessary to avoid relegation and is starting to dream of an international competition, something that hasn’t happened since 2016.

Teams come from Series B

The performance draws even more attention because the two clubs competed in Série B in 2025. Coritiba won the title, while Athletico, after a recovery campaign under the command of Odair Hellmann, finished as runner-up.

The natural expectation for the promoted teams would be a season of adaptation and fighting against relegation. In Curitiba, however, the scenario is different. With 13 rounds remaining, the question is no longer whether Athletico and Coritiba will remain in the elite. Now, the debate is how far each person can go.

O OneTwo Sports separated three factors, for each club, that help explain the good campaigns of their rivals.

Athletico: The best campaign of the points-run era

Kevin Viveros, goal man

No player symbolizes Athletico’s campaign better than Kevin Viveros. The Colombian center forward has scored 17 goals in the Brasileirão and is competing for the competition’s top scorer. Viveros is responsible for 45% of the team’s goals in the competition, a dependency that, at the same time, reveals the player’s quality and the risk the team runs without him.

The 26-year-old Colombian arrived at Athletico in 2025, recommended by Odair Hellmann himself, for approximately 5 million dollars (around R$28.9 million), the most expensive signing in the club’s history. In Series B, he had already shown efficiency with 9 goals. In Series A, however, the leap in quality was evident.

With physical explosiveness to attack from deep, good impulsion and efficiency with both legs, Viveros became the first Athletico player to score 14 goals in the same edition of the Brasileirão since Éderson, in 2013. The dispute for top scorer with Pedro, from Flamengo, who has scored 15 goals, promises to last until the end of the championship.

The continuity of Odair Hellmann’s work

Odair Hellmann’s stay also helps explain the campaign. Hired in May 2025 during Series B, the coach took over a pressured Athletico and led the recovery that ended with access. Instead of starting a new project after the rise, the board invested in continuity. The result appears on the field.

Athletico reached the 25th round with the club’s best campaign at this stage of the Brasileirão since the beginning of the points era. The brand even surpasses seasons in which Furacão finished among the first placed.

In addition to tactical work, Odair gained influence in building the squad. Viveros, for example, was recommended by the coach. Last week, the club renewed the coach’s contract until the end of 2027. The continuity allowed Athletico to start Serie A with an already consolidated game idea, while other competitors were still looking for adjustments during the championship.

The Arena da Baixada fortress

Athletico also found a combination normally associated with teams that fight at the top: strength at home and defensive security.

At Arena da Baixada, Furacão has 28 points in 13 matches, with a success rate of over 70%. The performance at home is among the best in the Brasileirão and supports the club’s constant presence in the G-4.

The defense also stands out. Athletico conceded just 25 goals and appears among the best defensive systems in the competition. While Viveros focuses the spotlight on attack, organization without the ball allows the team to remain competitive even when offensive performance drops.

The combination of a difficult stadium for opponents, consistent defense and a decisive striker helps explain why Athletico quickly left their newly promoted status to enter the Libertadores race.

Coritiba: Newly promoted player who refuses to be a yo-yo team

Strength as a visitor

If Athletico made the Arena a fortress, Coritiba found most of its points away from Couto Pereira. Coxa is among the best visitors in the Brazilian Championship and is going through a three-month streak without losing away from home. The last defeat as a visitor happened on May 30th, against Flamengo, at Maracanã.

After the World Cup break, Coritiba drew as a visitor with Red Bull Bragantino and São Paulo and beat Remo 3-2, coming from behind, at Mangueirão.

Performance is directly related to the way Fernando Seabra set up the team. With defensive organization and speed in transitions, Coxa can offer danger when finding spaces left by opponents.

Breno Lopes, Pedro Rocha and Joaquín Lavega are fundamental in this model, mainly due to their speed in transforming ball recovery into a scoring opportunity. For a newly promoted team, being able to score frequently away from home reduces dependence on field control and helps explain the club’s safe campaign.

Attack divides responsibilities

While Viveros concentrates much of Furacão’s offensive production, Coritiba divides responsibility between different players, in addition to showing a huge leap compared to 2025, where the attack was the team’s weak point.

Breno Lopes has eight goals in the Brasileirão. Pedro Rocha has seven, while Joaquín Lavega scored five times. Together, the three account for most of Alviverdes’ goals in the competition.

Pedro Rocha has also been growing precisely in the decisive stretch of the season. Against Remo, he scored the winning goal 3-2 at Mangueirão and resumed the team’s top scorer for the season, with 10 goals.

This diversity makes it difficult to prepare opponents. Coxa does not depend on just one player to decide matches and finds alternatives on both sides of the field, in addition to the arrival of midfield players.

Fernando Seabra’s tactical work and counterattack play

Fernando Seabra arrived at Coritiba at the end of 2025 with the mission of preparing the club for its return to Série A. The choice was to take advantage of an already formed base and add specific pieces, instead of promoting a complete reconstruction.

Important players from the access campaign remained, such as Jacy, Pedro Morisco and Josué, while names such as Breno Lopes, Pedro Rocha, Joaquín Lavega, raised the level of the squad.

In midfield, Josué continues as the main articulator and Sebastián Gómez offers balance when passing the ball and marking. Throughout the season, young people trained at the club also started to gain space, such as Vitor Tissi.

The result is a team without a big star, but capable of collectively competing against opponents with superior investments. Seabra found a model based on organization, intensity and quick transitions. Most importantly: he managed to make Coritiba reach the final stretch without carrying the characteristic that marked other recent returns to Serie A, which is the desperate fight against relegation.

With 37 points after 25 rounds, Coxa is close to the initial target of 45 points. After that, the objective may change. And, for the first time in a decade, the possibility of returning to compete in a continental competition.