2019 Copa Libertadores final

2019 Copa Libertadores final

The stadium during the opening ceremony
Event	2019 Copa Libertadores
Flamengo River Plate 2 1
Date	23 November 2019 (2019-11-23)
Venue	Estadio Monumental, Lima
Referee	Roberto Tobar (Chile)
Attendance	78,573

The 2019 Copa Libertadores final was the final match which decided the winner of the 2019 Copa Libertadores, the 60th edition of the Copa Libertadores, South American's top-tier continental club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.^[1]

The match was played on 23 November 2019 at the Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru,^[2][3] between Brazilian team Flamengo and the defending champions, River Plate from Argentina. This was the first Copa Libertadores final to be played as a single match at a neutral venue chosen in advance, replacing the previous home-and-away format.

Flamengo won the match 2–1, securing their second tournament title. As champions, they qualified as the CONMEBOL representative at the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2020 Recopa Sudamericana. They also automatically qualified for the 2020 Copa Libertadores group stage.^[4]

Teams

Team	Previous finals appearances (bold indicates winners)
Flamengo	1 (1981)
River Plate	6 (1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, 2015, 2018)

Venue

Estadio Monumental in Lima hosted the final

The Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago was originally selected to host the final, until the CONMEBOL decided to move the venue to Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru due to 2019 Chilean protests.

The match was played at the Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru. Originally scheduled at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, the match had to be relocated to the Estadio Monumental in Lima due to protests in Chile. It was the first final to be played as a single match at a neutral venue chosen in advance, replacing the home-and-away format used from 1960 to 2018.^[5] The second leg of the 2018 final was played at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain, the first final held outside of South America, after security concerns cancelled the original second leg at the stadium of River Plate in Buenos Aires.^[6]

This was the fourth Copa Libertadores final held in Lima, after the play-off of the 1971 finals and the first legs of the 1972 and 1997 finals, all matches played at the Estadio Nacional.^[7]

Original host selection

In 2016, CONMEBOL proposed that the Copa Libertadores final be played as a single match instead of over two legs.^[8] It was only on 23 February 2018 that CONMEBOL was able to confirm that the 2019 final onwards would be played as a single match at a venue chosen in advance,^[9] and on 11 June 2018 set the date of the match as 23 November 2019.^[2] With the Argentine and Brazilian cities banned by CONMEBOL for this bidding,^[10] three national associations had officialized interest in hosting the 2019 Copa Libertadores final.^[11][12]

Bidding Venues for the 2019 Copa Libertadores final

Association	Stadium	City	Capacity	Notes
Chile	Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos	Santiago	58,665
Peru	Estadio Nacional	Lima	50,000	Bid selected to host 2019 Copa Sudamericana final
Uruguay	Estadio Centenario	Montevideo	60,235	Bid withdrawn

On 14 August 2018, the CONMEBOL Council selected the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago, Chile as the venue of the 2019 Copa Libertadores final while the Estadio Nacional in Lima had been chosen to host the 2019 Copa Sudamericana final.^[13] The Uruguayan Football Association withdrew its bid because Estadio Centenario did not meet the CONMEBOL requirements.^[14]

Relocation to Lima

Large street protests in Chile began on 14 October 2019, involving millions of protestors and resulting in the deaths of at least 24 people.^[15] The protests led to safety concerns for the teams that would play the match and their travelling fans, despite this CONMEBOL still considered Santiago as the venue.^[16] Eventually, after a meeting between CONMEBOL president with the presidents of both finalists and those of their football associations and the Football Federation of Chile president, on 5 November it was announced that the match was relocated to the Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru, due to the ongoing unrest in Chile.^[3][17]

Show

Before the match, the Argentineans Fito Páez and Tini Stoessel, the Colombian Sebastián Yatra and the Brazilian Anitta, who performed "Y dale alegría a mi corazón" by Páez. Then two bands identified with the finalist teams participated: Turf, for River Plate and Gabriel o Pensador, for Flamengo.^[18]

Road to the final

Further information: 2019 Copa Libertadores

Note: In all scores below, the score of the home team is given first.

Flamengo			Round	River Plate
Opponent	Venue	Score		Opponent	Venue	Score
Bye			Qualifying stages	Bye
Group D			Group stage	Group A
San José	Away	0–1		Alianza Lima	Away	1–1
LDU Quito	Home	3–1		Palestino	Home	0–0
Peñarol	Home	0–1		Internacional	Away	2–2
San José	Home	6–1		Alianza Lima	Home	3–0
LDU Quito	Away	2–1		Palestino	Away	0–2
Peñarol	Away	0–0		Internacional	Home	2–2
Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Flamengo 6 10 2 LDU Quito 6 10 3 Peñarol 6 10 4 San José 6 4 Source: CONMEBOL				Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Internacional 6 14 2 River Plate 6 10 3 Palestino 6 7 4 Alianza Lima 6 1 Source: CONMEBOL
Seed 7			Final stages	Seed 10
Emelec (tied 2–2 on aggregate, won 4–2 on penalties)	Away	2–0	Round of 16	Cruzeiro (tied 0–0 on aggregate, won 4–2 on penalties)	Home	0–0
	Home	2–0			Away	0–0
Internacional (won 3–1 on aggregate)	Home	2–0	Quarter-finals	Cerro Porteño (won 3–1 on aggregate)	Home	2–0
	Away	1–1			Away	1–1
Grêmio (won 6–1 on aggregate)	Away	1–1	Semi-finals	Boca Juniors (won 2–1 on aggregate)	Home	2–0
	Home	5–0			Away	1–0

Format

The final is played as a single match at a pre-selected venue, with the higher-seeded team designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes.^[19] If scores are level after full time, 30 minutes of extra time would be played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.^[20][21]

Match

Summary

River Plate opened the match in a 2–3–3–2 formation, which allowed their midfield to dominate. This tactic gained them an early lead, when Rafael Santos Borré scored in the 14th minute from a cross by Ignacio Fernández. River Plate had numerous chances for a second goal in the first half: Borré missed an opportunity by inches, Nicolás De La Cruz missed a good chance in the 21st minute, and Exequiel Palacios had two long-distance shots that nearly went in. However River Plate were unable to capitalise on these opportunities, so at half time the score remained 1-0.^[22][23]

River Plate continued to dominate in the early part of the second half. However, Flamengo began to assert themselves on the counter-attack, with Gabriel Barbosa and Éverton Ribeiro nearly scoring while Borré was down with an injury. Flamengo substitute Diego was brought on for Gerson in the 66th minute, and he helped Flamengo turn the match around. Diego began several counter-attacks, including in the 75th minute when he linked up with Bruno Henrique Pinto and Gabriel. The score was still 1-0 in the 89th minute, with River Plate seeking to finish off the game, when Flamengo's Arrascaeta won the ball from Lucas Pratto in his own half, and started a counter-attack by passing to Bruno Henrique. Henrique dribbled the ball down the left wing and cut inside; near the opposing goal, he passed the ball to Arrascaeta, who avoided the goalkeeper's challenge to pass to an open Gabriel who scored a tap-in to tie the game.^[24]

Three minutes later (in the second minute of injury time), Diego launched a deep pass from his own half that both River Plate centre backs missed. This allowed Gabriel to score again from a half volley, giving Flamengo a 2–1 lead. The sudden reversal of fortune caused tempers to flare: Palacios kicked Bruno Henrique in the 95th minute, for which he received a red card. Gabriel Barbosa sarcastically applauded the referee in response; he also received a red card. The match ended shortly thereafter. After being behind for most of the match, Flamengo emerged as last minute champions, winning their second Copa Libertadores title.^[22][23]

Details

23 November 2019 (2019-11-23)

15:00 UTC−5

Flamengo	2–1	River Plate
Gabriel Barbosa 89', 90+2'	Report	Borré 14'

Estadio Monumental, Lima

Attendance: 78,573

Referee: Roberto Tobar (Chile)

Flamengo

River Plate

GK 1 Diego Alves RB 18 Rafinha  79' CB 3 Rodrigo Caio CB 24 Pablo Marí  54' LB 21 Filipe Luís CM 5 Willian Arão  85' CM 15 Gerson  65' RW 7 Éverton Ribeiro (c) AM 14 Giorgian De Arrascaeta  90+2' LW 27 Bruno Henrique CF 9 Gabriel Barbosa  90+2'  90+5' Substitutes: GK 12 César DF 2 Rodinei DF 4 Rhodolfo DF 6 Renê DF 26 Matheus Thuler MF 10 Diego  65' MF 13 Vinícius MF 19 Reinier MF 25 Robert Piris Da Motta  90+2' FW 11 Vitinho  85' FW 20 Lincoln FW 28 Orlando Berrío Manager: Jorge Jesus

GK 1 Franco Armani RB 29 Gonzalo Montiel CB 28 Lucas Martínez Quarta CB 22 Javier Pinola (c) LB 20 Milton Casco  29'  76' RM 24 Enzo Pérez  70' CM 26 Ignacio Fernández  68' CM 15 Exequiel Palacios  90+5' LM 11 Nicolás De La Cruz CF 19 Rafael Santos Borré  74' CF 7 Matías Suárez  45+1' Substitutes: GK 14 Germán Lux GK 25 Enrique Bologna DF 2 Robert Rojas DF 4 Fabrizio Angileri DF 6 Paulo Díaz  76' MF 5 Bruno Zuculini MF 10 Juan Fernando Quintero MF 21 Cristian Ferreira MF 23 Leonardo Ponzio FW 9 Julián Álvarez  68' FW 27 Lucas Pratto  74' FW 30 Ignacio Scocco Manager: Marcelo Gallardo

Assistant referees:[25][26] Christian Schiemann (Chile) Claudio Ríos (Chile) Fourth official: Andrés Rojas (Colombia) Video assistant referee: Esteban Ostojich (Uruguay) Assistant video assistant referees: Piero Maza (Chile) Alexander Guzmán (Colombia) Víctor Carrillo (Peru)

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Twelve named substitutes. Maximum of three substitutions, with a fourth allowed in extra time.

Post-match

Flamengo won their second Copa Libertadores and earned the right to represent CONMEBOL at the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar. Jorge Jesus became the second non-South American manager to win the Copa Libertadores, following Mirko Jozić's 1991 championship for Colo-Colo.^[27] The club went on to clinch the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A title a day later after the second-place team, Palmeiras, was mathematically eliminated from reaching the title.^[28] Flamengo became the first Brazilian club to earn a league and continental double since Santos did in 1963. The victory celebrations in Rio de Janeiro attracted tens of thousands of fans as the players rode in an open-top bus, but ended with clashes between riot police and spectators.^[29][30]

Flamengo's two late goals to overturn a 0–1 deficit invited comparisons to the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, in which Manchester United defeated Bayern Munich in a similar fashion.^[31]

Broadcasting

In Brazil, the match was broadcast by Rede Globo with commentary provided by Luiz Roberto, Júnior and Walter Casagrande, in addition to Fox Sports on cable television with commentary provided by Nivaldo Prieto, Edmundo and Paulo Vinicius Coelho. The original broadcast received an Ibope Rating of 38 points in the 15 largest metropolitan regions in Brazil, reaching a total of 65.7 million viewers, with almost half of the television sets in Brazil watching the Globo broadcast.^[32]

See also

• 2019 Copa Sudamericana final
• 2020 Recopa Sudamericana

References

1. "Reglamento CONMEBOL Libertadores 2019" (PDF). CONMEBOL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
2. "Definida la fecha de la final de la Copa Conmebol Libertadores 2019" (in Spanish). El Tiempo. 11 June 2018.
3. "La final única de CONMEBOL Libertadores será en Lima" (in Spanish). CONMEBOL.com. 5 November 2019.
4. "¡Flamengo campeón de la CONMEBOL Libertadores 2019!". CONMEBOL. 23 November 2019.
5. "Cuando a Newell's se le escapó su primera final de Copa Libertadores" (in Spanish). El Gráfico. 26 October 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
6. "final de la CONMEBOL Libertadores 2018 se jugará el domingo 9 de diciembre en el Santiago Bernabéu de Madrid" (in Spanish). CONMEBOL.com. 29 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
7. "No será la primera vez: ¿Cuántas finales de Libertadores se han jugado en Lima?" [It will not be the first time: How many Libertadores finals have been played in Lima?] (in Spanish). Sport. 6 November 2019.
8. "Copa Libertadores 2017 se jugará todo el año y con final en cancha neutral" (in Spanish). pulzo.com. 27 September 2016.
9. "La CONMEBOL Libertadores se definirá en final única a partir de 2019 con mayores beneficios a los clubes y la competencia". CONMEBOL. 23 February 2018.
10. Alex Sabino; Fábio Aleixo (12 June 2018). "Brasil e Argentina só serão sedes da final da Libertadores a partir de 2021" (in Portuguese). Folha de S.Paulo.
11. Czyz, Fernando (11 June 2018). "La primera final a partido único de la Copa Libertadores será el 23 de noviembre de 2019" (in Spanish). Doble Amarilla.
12. Czyz, Fernando (15 June 2018). "Santiago de Chile será la sede de la primera final única de la Copa Libertadores en 2019" [Santiago de Chile will host the first single final of the Copa Libertadores in 2019] (in Spanish). Doble Amarilla.
13. "Histórica decisión: Final Única de la Libertadores 2019 en Santiago y Final Única de la Sudamericana 2019 en Lima" (in Spanish). CONMEBOL.com. 14 August 2018.
14. Amaya, Sebastián (16 October 2019). "La final de la Libertadores 2020 será en Maracaná; ¿qué impide a Uruguay ser anfitrión de ese partido único?" (in Spanish). El Observador.
15. Esposito, Anthony (15 November 2019). "Human rights abuse accusations proliferate in Chile unrest". Reuters. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
16. "Comunicado CONMEBOL" (in Spanish). CONMEBOL.com. 20 October 2019.
17. "Copa Libertadores final moved from Santiago to Lima due to unrest in Chile". ESPN. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
18. en / show-of-international-stars-to-start-the-only-end-of-the-conmebol-liberators-2019 International star show to begin the Single Final of the CONMEBOL Libertadores 2019
19. Reglamento, p. 30.
20. Reglamento, p. 31.
21. Blitz, Sam (22 November 2019). "Copa Libertadores Final 2019: how to watch, who is playing and how it works". FourFourTwo.com. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
22. Ellerby, Nick (23 November 2019). "Flamengo stage incredible comeback to beat River Plate and become champions of South America". copalibertadores.com. CONMEBOL. Archived from the original on 11 September 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
23. Chowdhury, Saj (23 November 2019). "Copa Libertadores: Flamengo beat River Plate with two late goals". BBC. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
24. Unwin, Will (23 November 2019). "Flamengo 2–1 River Plate: Copa Libertadores final – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
25. "Roberto Tobar es el árbitro designado para dirigir la final de la CONMEBOL Libertadores" (in Spanish). CONMEBOL. 12 November 2019.
26. "Sustitución de Árbitro VAR de la final de la CONMEBOL Libertadores 2019" (in Spanish). CONMEBOL. 19 November 2019.
27. "Late goals give Flamengo dramatic Copa Libertadores title". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 23 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.^{[dead link‍]}
28. "Flamengo win Brazilian league while celebrating Copa Libertadores title". ESPN. Reuters. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
29. "Flamengo clinch double as Rio celebrations are marred by clashes". The Guardian. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
30. "Flamengo's Copa Libertadores celebrations end in clashes". Sky Sports. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
31. "Flamengo lift Copa Libertadores with last-gasp 2-1 win over River Plate". France 24. 23 November 2019.
32. UOL (February 2, 2021) - SBT lidera audiência no país com Palmeiras; Globo vence só em duas capitais (in Portuguese)

External links

• CONMEBOL Libertadores 2019, CONMEBOL