The last two champions of the Copa Libertadores, Palmeiras and Flamengo, will battle this Saturday, starting at 16:00 (HB), in Montevideo for the most precious club trophy in South America, a title that will crown the Brazilian hegemony in regional football.
The football ambassadors of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will parade in the mythical Centenario stadium with two common objectives: to raise what would be the third Libertadores for his team and to elucidate the dominator of Brazilian football in the last five years.
The final will be the clash between one of the most powerful payrolls in America, that of Flamengo by Renato Portaluppi, against a team with outstanding individualities but whose strength is the collective, the Palmeiras of the Portuguese Abel Ferreira.
– The magician returns –
“We know that on the other side we will find a very strong team, who also wants to win. But it is an opportunity that both the club and I have to win the three-time championship, “said Portaluppi, the only Brazilian to win the Libertadores as a player (1983) and as a coach (2017), both with Gremio.
In bid to reach another “tri” that seems distant, that of Brasileirao, after the league conquests in 2019 and 2020, Portaluppi seeks to revalidate the Libertadores won by ‘Mengão’ two years ago.
The ‘Fla’, undefeated in the competition (nine wins, three equalities), he still retains the base of that steamroller driven by the Portuguese Jorge Jesus, although his setbacks in the semifinal of the Copa do Brasil and the local championship cracked Renato’s image.
Nevertheless, the smile appears on the technician’s face, the one with the most victories in the Libertadores (50). The Uruguayan midfielder Giorgian de Arrascaeta, the brain of the team, overcame a muscle injury and would accompany ‘Gabigol’, scorer scorer (10 goals), in the attack.
With the charrúa healed, although without full rhythm, The Cariocas have all their weapons to fight for their third Liberators, after those obtained in 1981 and 2019, among them goalkeeper Diego Alves, defenders Mauricio Isla, David Luiz and Filipe Luís, midfielder Everton Ribeiro and attacker Bruno Henrique.
Between red and black and emeralds have dominated South American soccer for the past five years, winning ten of the 27 main regional and Brazilian tournaments. The trend is in line with the authority of the Brazilian football clubs, which this year put the four finalists from the Libertadores and the Sudamericana.
– Present opaque –
But the Paulistas, supported in the arch by Weverton, In defense by Paraguayan Gustavo Gómez, in midfield by the recovered Felipe Melo and in attack by Rony and Raphael Veiga, they have been on a downward curve for weeks that deprived them of titles in local competitions in 2021.
Palmeiras adjusts four games in a row without winning – three defeats, a draw – and the criticism against his philosophy of the game, for many conservative, turn the final into a lifeline for Ferreira, who in Montevideo will barely have the suspension of the suspended defender Marcos Rocha.
Although pressed, the Portuguese appeals to his results to win the third crown esmeralda (1999, 2020). In the year he has been in Sao Paulo, he classified ‘Verdão’ to six finals, of which he has so far won two, the last Libertadores against Santos and the Copa do Brasil-2020 against Gremio.
To defeat Flamengo, who beat them in the Brazilian Super Cup in April, would be the first European coach twice champion of Libertadores and his eleven, the first to lift this competition twice in a row since Boca Juniors did it in 2000 and 2001.
“I know that many give Flamengo as a favorite, but I think it’s going to be a very difficult game, “Veiga told AFP.
At the Centennial, where 60,000 people are expected, more than one star is at stake.
Possible lineups:
Palmeiras: Weverton – Gustavo Gómez, Felipe Melo, Luan – Mayke, Danilo, Zé Rafael, Joaquín Piquerez – Raphael Veiga, Dudu – Rony. DT: Abel Ferreira.
Flamengo: Diego Alves – Mauricio Isla, David Luiz, Rodrigo Caio, Filipe Luís – Willian Arao, Andreas Pereira – Everton Ribeiro, Giorgian De Arrascaeta, Bruno Henrique – Gabriel Barbosa. DT: Renato Portaluppi.
Referees: Argentine Néstor Pitana accompanied by his compatriots Juan Belatti and Gabriel Chade on the bands.
