RIO DE JANEIRO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- A brace from attacking midfielder Ze Rafael helped defending champions Palmeiras to a 4-0 home win over newly promoted Fortaleza in their opening match of the Brazilian Serie A season on Sunday.
Ze scored either side of Marcos Rocha's 59th minute strike before Bruno Henrique added a fourth goal in stoppage time at Allianz Parque in Sao Paulo.
Palmeiras head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari praised his team's "balanced" performance but said he wouldn't get carried away with the result.
"Every player contributed and that's something that helped us win [the title] last year," Brazil's 2002 World Cup-winning manager said.
"The competition is very long and we still have the Copa do Brasil and Copa Libertadores to think about. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves."
In Porto Alegre, Jorge Sampaoli's Santos caused one of the upsets of the round with a 2-1 victory over Gremio.
Eduardo Santos and Felipe Jonatan netted first half goals for the visitors and it took until the 93rd minute for Everton Soares to open Gremio's account. Santos were reduced to 10 men in the final minute when Derlis Gonzalez received his second yellow card in as many minutes for a bad foul on striker Diego Tardelli.
In Rio de Janeiro, Goias beat Fluminense 1-0 thanks to a late Rafael Vaz strike. The match at the Maracana stadium was halted for almost 20 minutes when an electrical storm prompted a power outage during the second half.
In other matches on Sunday, Bahia won 3-2 at home to Corinthians, Athletico Paranaense beat Vasco da Gama 4-1 in Curitiba and hosts Ceara thumped Serie A newcomers CSA 4-0.
