RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Ronaldo showed a burst  of his old pace to score the second goal for Corinthians in a  2-0 win over Sao Paulo yesterday.

The former AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid  striker outpaced his marker over 30 metres as he chased  Cristian’s through ball before clipping his shot past Sao Paulo  Bosco in the 58th minute.

It was the sixth goal of the 32-year-old’s comeback  following last year’s knee injury, the previous ones all having  been scored from inside the penalty area.

Douglas had opened the scoring three minutes before  Ronaldo’s goal.

Corinthians completed a 4-1 aggregate win in their Paulista  championship semi-final to earn a place against Santos in the  two-leg final.

Santos beat Vanderlei Luxemburgo’s Palmeiras 2-1 on  Saturday, winning 4-2 on aggregate, in a match marred by an ugly  brawl near the end.

The Paulista is the largest of the regional championships  which kick off the marathon Brazilian season.

The tournaments, one for each of Brazil’s 27 states, each  have their own formats and are completely detached from the  Brazilian championship which starts in May.

Former world club champions Internacional scored seven times  in the first half on the way to beating Caxias 8-1 to clinch the  Rio Grande do Sul championship, another of the bigger  tournaments.

Magrao and Nilmar scored twice each while Taison, Alvaro and  Argentine pair Pablo Guinazu and Andres D’Alessandro shared the  others.

Cristian Borja scored Caxias’s consolation.

Internacional won the second stage of the tournament and  also clinched the title as they won the first stage played  earlier in the year.

Flamengo beat Botafogo 1-0 in Rio de Janeiro’s Carioca  championship thanks to a bizarre own goal by Emerson who missed  his kick completely as he attempted to clear and saw the ball  bounce into the net of his other leg.

Under the complex rules of the tournament, the win gave  Flamengo the right to play the same opponents twice more to  decide the title.

Yesterday’s win meant that Flamengo won the second stage.  Botafogo won the first stage earlier in the year.