To Lima, via Santiago

The 2019 Copa Libertadores final was scheduled to take place at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, on 23 November – a month from the day of Flamengo’s semi-final win over Grêmio. Awaiting the newly confirmed Brazilian champions were River Plate, who had overcome Boca Juniors in a two-legged Buenos Aires superclásico semi-final. River were also the defending Libertadores champions, having beaten their arch-rivals in Madrid in unprecedented circumstances twelve months previously. In the competition’s last ever two-legged final in 2018, crowd violence ahead of the second leg forced the cancellation of the game and, after much arbitrational handwringing, a venue change to the Santiago Bernabéu, where Los Millionarios ran out 3-1 winners in extra time.

Flamengo v River Plate was thus to be the first single-game final at a neutral venue in the 59-year history of the Libertadores, and for fans like Caio the procurement of tickets represented just the beginning of convoluted plans to reach Santiago. Already it was clear that substantial financial savings would need to be committed to the cause, since air travel in South America is anything but inexpensive. In the days after the semi-final, however, significant complications arose as violent social unrest in the Chilean capital, which had flared up during October, meant that a major showpiece final was now untenable for the city. CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football, took several days to reach a decision as to where the game would be held, and numerous options were discussed – at one point, Caio held hotel reservations in Santiago, Asunción, and Lima, while some fans also booked travel to all three destinations.

Check-in at the hotel, and collection of the all-important match tickets, was not effected until shortly before one o’clock in the afternoon, and a brief dispute as to the feasibility of lunch ahead of the 3pm kick-off inevitably ended in favour of transit to the stadium, post-haste. So it was that Caio and Guilherme, along with thousands of others who have their own story of that day to tell, stood hungry, exhausted, and in intensifying anguish as the game unfolded.

The final reckoning

“River started fast and played their own game,” says Caio, “while we were unable to impose ourselves. I think the occasion and the conditions really affected the players, especially in the first half.” Yet this was no ordinary opponent. River Plate boasted formidable experience and pedigree in domestic and continental competition and were looking to win their third Libertadores title in four years, their fifth overall. For large parts of the final Flamengo proved impotent against their Argentine adversaries, who showed all the cunning and control expected of defending champions and, arguably, the best side in South America in recent years. All told, River dominated the match. None of Flamengo’s new generation who took to the field had been born when Zico led the club to victory over little-known Chilean side Cobreloa in 1981. Under the stewardship of Jesus, they wanted to repeat that feat against the mighty River Plate but encountered opposition that was apparently superior in every department.

River Plate quickly capitalized on their dominance, and Rafael Santos Borré’s fourteenth-minute strike rattled Flamengo. In a disastrous sequence of play, the Brazilian rearguard’s defending was exposed, leading to Borré’s simple finish. Flamengo failed to recover from the goal as a superior River Plate side pressed everywhere and bamboozled the Brazilians with its aggression and dynamic attacking. The first-choice strikers – Borré and Matiás Suárez – were superb as the last line of attack and the first line of defence. The Argentines played with bravura and control, targeting Willian Arão in midfield. Jesus’s team had no immediate response and failed to distribute the ball, leaving too much space in between the lines. 

Where had the virtues of Jesus’s team gone? Since his arrival, the Portuguese had modernized Flamengo, importing a European style of play based on the “three P’s” of possession, pressing, and positioning. His defence constantly played a high line and his team always sought possession and attack, but in the Peruvian capital the plan was not working. Flamengo failed to work the angles and could not pass their way through midfield. Worse still, no player stood out as a leader, while in Enzo Pérez, who dictated the pace, and centre-back captain Javier Pinola, the Argentines had two. Flamengo’s attacking quartet of Éverton Ribeiro, Giorgian De Arrascaeta, Bruno Henrique, and Gabriel Barbosa was peripheral to the action, and not until midfielder Gerson found his stride at the half-hour mark did the overawed Brazilians restore any semblance of balance to the game.

After the interval, River Plate maintained the same intensity, pressing all over the pitch and reducing Bruno Henrique and Barbosa – nicknamed Gabigol – to mere spectators. When a major triple chance did arrive in the 57th minute, Flamengo fluffed it. River’s game plan hamstrung Flamengo – without the space and time on the ball to which they are so accustomed in the domestic league, the Brazilians’ decision-making proved below par. To compound matters, Gerson, Flamengo’s midfield metronome of the title-winning season, limped off injured shortly after the hour mark.

Yet that injury would eventually prove to be a turning point of this final. Substitute Diego, a veteran of Werder Bremen, Juventus, and VfL Wolfsburg, among others, replaced Gerson in midfield. Sixteen years earlier at the age of eighteen, Diego had contested his first Libertadores final alongside Robinho for Santos against Boca Juniors, only to be on the end of a 5-1 aggregate defeat. Here in Lima, he seized the moment as a classic, madcap finale to the game encapsulated the richness and unpredictability of South America’s premier club competition. Flamengo’s number ten lifted the pressure, orchestrated the midfield, and finally imbued the Rubro-Negro with a sense of cohesion. River Plate coach Marcelo Gallardo had so far excelled tactically, but it was always going to be difficult for his team to resist the full force of Flamengo’s attack, particularly as the Brazilians’ desperation grew.

Denouement

23-year-old front man Barbosa, on loan from Internazionale, had thus far shown little more than reasons for his failure to make the grade in Italy. After a stellar 2019 season with 40 goals and 11 assists in 54 games in Brazil, he seemed to falter on the biggest stage in Lima. Then, with seconds to go before full time, Gabigol exploded. Indeed, the greatest of moments are often preceded by toil and self-doubt. When River substitute Lucas Pratto, goalscoring hero of the 2018 final, dwelt on the ball in the 89th minute, he was harried by Diego and lost possession. Flamengo launched a quick attack on the left flank through Bruno Henrique, who found De Arrascaeta with an astute pass into the penalty area. The Uruguayan squared for the unmarked Gabigol to bring Flamengo level, and the ensuing celebrations consumed the remaining seconds of normal time.

Gallardo, who was seen attempting to rouse the nervous River supporters just moments before the equaliser, now looked shell-shocked on the touchline. The stands were abuzz again, but not at the end he had hoped to galvanize. Alongside thousands of others in red-and-black, Caio and Guilhuirme now sang “Em dezembro de ‘81 botou os ingleses na roda – 3 a 0 no Liverpool ficou marcado na história”. The dream of reaching the FIFA Club World Cup – and a match with Liverpool in re-enactment of 1981 – was alive again, and they wanted to live out their wildest fantasy.

In fact, they were living it now. Flamengo had been stretched thin but were to deliver one last instance of vertiginous sporting drama. Well into four minutes of added time, the irrepressible Diego launched the ball long to test the River centre-backs, perhaps for the last time. Pinola missed the header in a tussle with Gabigol, who then pounced with the warp-speed thinking of an experienced striker, not to mention the knowledge that he was about to etch his name into the pantheon of the football gods. His unerring left-footed half-volley past goalkeeper Franco Armani bulged the net with 91:17 on the clock, instigating delirious pandemonium in one half of Estadio Monumental and across much of Brazil.

For Caio and Guilherme, all those questions had been answered in three of the most thrilling and scarcely believable minutes of their lives. As it turned out, the journey had been worth it, and its fulfilment had given them memories to which no monetary value could ever be attached. Caio recalls how all those negative thoughts and physical torment dissipated in an instant: “When the second goal went in I went straight from hell to heaven, I was so thankful to be there.” This was not just football as a beautiful game with fine margins, neat patterns, and modern-day athleticism – this was sport as a transcendental experience. In the chaotic final moments, the hero Gabigol and River’s Exequiel Palacios were both sent off, but it mattered little. These were mere details that would inevitably be lost in the hysteria of history newly made. In the stands an explosion of Rubro-Negro joy assailed the senses, because after 13,879 days or 38 years Flamengo were once again champions of South America, crowned in the City of Kings.

Copa Libertadores Final, 23 November 2019 — Flamengo 2-1 River Plate

• Flamengo: Diego Alves (gk), Rafinha, Rodrigo Caio, Pablo Marí, Filipe Luís, Willian Arão (Vitinho ‘85), Gerson (Diego ‘65), Everton Ribeiro (c), Giorgian De Arrascaeta (Robert Piris Da Motta ‘90+2), Bruno Henrique, Gabriel Barbosa (sent off 90+5)

• River Plate: Franco Armani (gk), Gonzalo Montiel, Lucas Martínez Quarta, Javier Pinola (c), Milton Casco (Paulo Díaz ‘76), Enzo Pérez, Ignacio Fernández (Julián Álvarez ‘68), Exequiel Palacios (sent off 90+5), Nicolás De La Cruz, Rafael Santos Borré (Lucas Pratto ‘74), Matías Suárez

  Goals: Borré ‘14; Barbosa ‘89, 90+2

Words: A M Gross and Samindra Kunti | Imagery: Caio Lauth; Imago