Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã gave Estudiantes a route back to Montevideo, and the Argentine club will now return to the scene of its first Copa Libertadores triumph for a final steeped in history. After eliminating Flamengo on penalties, Estudiantes will meet Palmeiras at the Centenário Stadium on 28 November, pursuing a fifth continental crown.
Montevideo reunion with Palmeiras
The final recreates the 1968 Libertadores decider, when Estudiantes and Palmeiras also concluded the competition in Uruguay’s capital. Nearly six decades after their first title, the La Plata side have the chance to add another chapter against precisely the same opponent and in precisely the same stadium.
- Estudiantes won the first leg of the 1968 final, beating Palmeiras 2-1 in Argentina.
- Palmeiras responded with a 3-1 victory in São Paulo.
- Goal difference was not used to settle the contest under the regulations at that time, so a play-off was required.
- On 18 May 1968, Estudiantes defeated Palmeiras 2-0 at the Centenário to secure their maiden Libertadores title.
Juan Ramón Verón was the defining figure of that final, scoring once in each match of the original two-leg series. He is the father of Estudiantes president and former Argentina midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón, who was himself part of the club’s most recent Libertadores-winning campaign in 2009.
Penalty success at the Maracanã
Estudiantes reached this year’s final after a goalless semi-final against Flamengo at the Maracanã, prevailing 3-2 in the shootout after the tie finished 0-0. The result sent the visitors through from one of Brazilian football’s grandest venues and set up another meeting with a Brazilian side in Uruguay.
Head coach Alexander “Cacique” Medina, a Uruguayan, reflected on the emotional symmetry of the occasion after the shootout.
“In 1968 it was the same final and the same place. As a Uruguayan, the Maracanã and the Centenário are two temples of our history,” Medina said. “To get past a Brazilian team in this stadium and then face another Brazilian club at the Centenário is something I feel very deeply.”
For Estudiantes, the journey now runs from the noise of Rio to the old bowl in Montevideo: a return to the ground where the club’s Libertadores identity began, with Palmeiras again waiting at the end of it.
