In Atlético-MG’s official debut at Arena MRV, the club’s new stadium, it was up to striker Paulinho to score the first goal for Atlético’s new home. The striker, who wears the number 10 of the Galo, scored in the 12th minute of the first stage against Santos.
With a start of the game on top of Santos, Atlético managed to get the first cry of the goal from their fans’ throats in the 12th minute. Pedrinho made a beautiful pass to Hulk, who backed up with his heel for Paulinho to hit the edge of the area.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
PAAAAAAAAAAULIIIIIIIINHOOOOOOO HISTORICOOOOOO!! THE FIRST IN OUR HOUSE! PAULINHO MARKS IN THE MRV ARENA!!!#VamoGalo #CAMxSAN pic.twitter.com/irqLa2dEHh
— Athletic (@Atletico) August 27, 2023
At the celebration, Paulinho made a point of running to the nearest corner flag, showing Atlético’s symbol and saying: « This is our home! »
Arena MRV’s first goal has a name: Paulinho!
Torcida do Galo makes the party! pic.twitter.com/W4LroPcZVB
—Alecsander Heinrick (@alecshms) August 27, 2023
Official game is the third event at the MRV Arena
The game against Santos is not the first opportunity that Atlético fans have had to visit the MRV Arena. The stadium has already hosted two other events that were open to the public and followed the idea of increasing capacity over time.
The first was “Nascimento do Campo”, where the lines of the lawn were marked and there were also the installation of the goalposts. This event took place in April of this year and received around five thousand people.
The second event was “Lendas do Galo”, the first football match played at the stadium, which received almost 100 players and historical characters from the club. The event was divided into three 20-minute games so that the big names of the club, such as Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Reinaldo, Éder Aleixo, among others, could play in the athletic house. Initially, the stadium would receive 15,000 fans, but Atlético managed to increase the capacity to 20,000.
These previous events were called “test events”, as they helped stadium administrators understand what they needed to improve. Several mistakes were made in these actions, as mentioned by CEO Bruno Muzzi, but they worked to fix them for Sunday’s game:
– The Arena, physical part, is ready. As for services, we are seeing today that it is much more difficult than we imagined. We are learning. It’s part of it, all stadiums have gone through it. The sequence of test events was exactly for us to see what we need. We’ve done 2k, 9k, and 20k events, and a lot has gone wrong. We’ve mapped everything out and we’re trying to do it differently. I hope we get it right, but then we’ll find out which others will emerge – said Muzzi.
Details about Arena MRV, Atlético’s new home
- Capacity: 46 thousand fans
- Land: 128 thousand m²
- Terrace: 46 thousand m²
- Amount: BRL 746 million – without counterparts
- Location: Bairro California, Northwest region of Belo Horizonte
- Transport: metro (15/20 minutes on foot), bus (about six lines nearby) and taxi/cars by app
- Calls itself “the most technological Arena in Latin America”