Montevideo will host Estudiantes de La Plata’s next great continental appointment on 28 November, when the Argentine side meet Palmeiras in the Copa Libertadores final with a fifth South American crown and a route towards the 2029 Club World Cup at stake.
Estudiantes reached the final after a tense semi-final against Flamengo ended goalless before the La Plata club prevailed 3-2 on penalties. The result sends them back to the same stadium where they won their first Libertadores title, and gives Argentine football a chance to secure its first representative for the second edition of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup.
Victory over Palmeiras would bring automatic qualification for 2029. Should the competition retain the 32-team structure used in its first edition, South America will receive six places: four for the Libertadores champions from 2025 through 2028, plus two determined by the CONMEBOL ranking. No country may normally supply more than two clubs through that ranking route, although a Libertadores winner can take the number beyond that limit. Brazil had four participants in 2025 — Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense and Botafogo — under that exception.
Estudiantes have strengthened their position through consecutive deep runs in the competition, having made the semi-finals in 2025 before reaching this season’s final. They are now third in the CONMEBOL table on 62 points, the highest-placed Argentine club. Flamengo lead with 83, one ahead of Palmeiras, while Flamengo’s 2025 Libertadores triumph has already secured their place at the 2029 Club World Cup.
The current standings underline how quickly the balance has shifted in Argentina. Behind the leading three come LDU on 61 points, Independiente del Valle with 40, Racing on 35, Cerro Porteño on 34, Fluminense on 28, Peñarol on 26, and Corinthians and São Paulo level on 25.
River Plate and Boca Juniors, Argentina’s two most decorated clubs, are currently well outside the ranking places. River, absent from this season’s Libertadores, sit 16th with 23 points and trail five other Argentine sides. Boca are 37th on 10 points, tenth among clubs from their own country, after falling in the 2025 preliminary rounds and then exiting this year’s group stage.
For those outside the ranking race, lifting the Libertadores remains the clearer path to the global tournament. Argentina’s qualification picture for the 2027 Libertadores is also taking shape: Belgrano, winners of the 2026 Apertura, are the only side already certain of a place. The country has four group-stage berths and one preliminary-round slot.
Three further group-stage positions will be decided through the Copa Argentina, the Clausura and the annual league table. Boca are still alive in the Copa Argentina semi-finals, while River have already departed that competition. In the overall standings, Boca and Argentinos Juniors share first place on 54 points, with River eighth on 49 as the Clausura begins to unfold.
