Porto Alegre, May 22 (IANS) Luis Suarez struck one of the early contenders for goal of the season as Gremio cruised to a 3-1 home win over rivals Internacional in Brazil's Serie A championship.

The former Barcelona and Liverpool striker opened the scoring in the seventh Minute at Arena do Gremio when he ran around a defender before lashing an unstoppable 30-yard drive into the top right corner, reports Xinhua.

Mathias Villasanti and Joao Bitello added goals on either side of halftime before Johnny Cardoso reduced the deficit by heading home from a cross three minutes from time.

Gremio were forced to play the final 40 minutes with 10 men after Walter Kannemann was shown a second yellow card for a bad challenge.

The result leaves Gremio 10th in the 20-team standings with 11 points from seven outings, four points ahead of 14th-placed Internacional.

In Sunday's only other Brazilian Serie A fixture, Leo Pereira scored in the 94th minute as Flamengo clinched a 1-0 home win over Corinthians.

--IANS

cs