RIO DE JANEIRO, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Parana state team Coritiba beat Sao Paulo state's Portuguesa 4-0 in the tenth round of the Brazilian League Wednesday night.

    The victory promoted Coritiba from 16th to 9th place in the standings with 13 points, nine less than the championship leader Rio's Flamengo. Portuguesa remained with 12 points, falling from ninth to 11th place in the championship.

    Both teams, which were promoted to the first division last year, had lost their ninth round games and needed better results to improve their positions in the championship.

    The Brazilian League is a tournament with 20 teams. The last four are to be relegated to second division, the first four qualify to Libertadores Cup, and those from fifth to eleventh place qualify for the South American Cup.

    Neither Coritiba nor Portuguesa played well in the first half of the game, making a lot of mistakes. Portuguesa wasted two chances with Edno and Washington, and Coritiba's strikers were no match for Portuguesa's goalkeeper Andre Luis.

    Coritiba returned with a new attitude for the second half. With the support of its fans, the team managed to score at eight minutes of the second half.

    After that, the Parana state club put more pressure on Portuguesa team, which started making mistakes. Rubens Cardoso made good use of one of them, and scored in the 16th minute.

    Washington and Edno wasted good chances to score for Portuguesa, and the Sao Paulo state club lost a player in the 21st minute, when Diogo elbowed Coritiba's Keirrisson and received a red card.

    Six minutes later, Hugo made the first of his two goals in the match, after dribbling past Edno. His second goal and Coritiba's fourth came in the 44th minute.