In a bizarre turn of events during a Brazilian top-flight football match, Coritiba defender Jacy Maranhao’s moment of goal-scoring joy quickly turned into painful embarrassment when he fell down an unmarked tunnel while celebrating his late first-half strike against Chapecoense.
The 29-year-old centre-back scored what looked to be a crucial opening goal in the 41st minute of the fixture, putting his side ahead 1-0 with a well-placed header. Eager to share the moment of his rare goal with waiting fans, Maranhao sprinted toward the stands and vaulted over the pitchside advertising hoarding—only to vanish from sight, landing straight in an open service tunnel that leads to the away team’s changing rooms.
Though the defender managed to pull himself back up to the surface unassisted, he left the incident with a painful twisted ankle. To make the awkward moment even worse, video assistant referees (VAR) ultimately ruled out Maranhao’s goal for an undisclosed infringement, robbing him of the goal that caused the injury in the first place.
The injury forced Coritiba’s coaching staff to pull Maranhao from the pitch shortly after the half-time break, as the defender could no longer push through the pain. Despite the embarrassing misadventure, Maranhao downplayed the severity of his injury after the final whistle, noting that his ankle remains sore but that he is otherwise in good condition.
“Centre-backs hardly ever score goals. So when you do score … I just got carried away,” Maranhao explained his overexcited celebration to reporters after the match. Remarkably, this is not the first time a similar accident has occurred at Coritiba’s home ground, the Couto Pereira Stadium in Curitiba. Back in 2014, Cameroonian striker Joel, who was playing for Coritiba at the time, suffered an identical fall while celebrating a goal in a 3-1 victory over Sao Paulo, jumping the same barrier into the same unmarked tunnel. Despite the chaotic incident early in the match, Coritiba held on to secure a 2-1 win over Chapecoense, leaving the club with three points even as their defender recovered from his unexpected injury.