Romario furious after Vasco's heavy loss to Palmeiras

Veteran striker Romario slammed his team after they were routed 5-2 by Palmeiras in the Brazilian championship at the weekend.

The 39-year-old former Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven and Brazil player scored both Vasco's goals, taking his tally in the tournament to four, but was powerless as Palmeiras scored five times in the last half hour.

"We looked like a small team, who like to suffer," he told reporters. "I'm not used to losing like this."

Romario opened the scoring with his second touch of the game when he fired home a loose ball following a corner in the 19th minute.

Former Vasco midfielder Pedrinho levelled on the hour, then midfielder Marcinho scored a 20-minute hat-trick for Palmeiras.

Romario pulled one back with another rare touch of the ball and Correa completed the rout in injury-time.

Vasco dropped to 18th in the table with eight points from the same number of games while Palmeiras climbed to 13th.

Botafogo stayed top despite losing 1-0 to Sao Paulo, who rested several first-team players ahead of their Libertadores Cup semi-final first leg tie against Argentina's River Plate tomorrow.

Debutant Paulo Mattos scored the winning goal in the 75th minute.

Brazil's other Libertadores semi-finalists Atletico Paranaense stayed bottom after drawing 1-1 at Flamengo, despite having Durval sent off after 24 minutes.

Paranaense, who have only two points, went ahead with a Fabricio free-kick early in the second half but were pegged back by a Renato penalty.

Ponte Preta, who beat Goias 2-0, and Fluminense, 3-0 winners over Internacional, moved within one point of Botafogo.

Corinthians are a further point behind in fourth place after winning 4-2 at Brasiliense to record their fifth straight win since Marcio Bittencourt replaced Daniel Passarella as coach.

Former Brazil striker Edmundo scored two goals and missed a penalty as Figueirense drew 3-3 with Paysandu.