RIO DE JANEIRO.- A week after having won its first Copa Libertadores, Botafogo from Rio de Janeiro became champion this Sunday of the Copa Libertadores soccer tournament. Brazila conquest that puts an end to a league drought of almost thirty years.
Fogão won its third star, the first since 1995, by beating Sao Paulo 2-1 at the Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium in Rio on the 38th and final day of the competition.
It was enough for the Lone Star team to get a unit to touch the sky and in the process break the dominance of Palmeiras, winner of the last two editions of the Brasileirao, the most powerful league in South America.
The attacker Venezuelan Jefferson Savarino unleashed the joy at Nilton Santos with a beautiful finish in the 37th minute.
Attacker William Gomes put the tension by tying in the second half (63), but midfielder Gregore, antihero of the Libertadores final, sealed the score 2-1 in stoppage time (90+2).
Led by the Portuguese Abel Ferreira and second in the table, six points behind, Verdão lost 1-0 to Fluminense in Sao Paulo.
The São Paulo players reached the final match with a chance of winning the title, although they needed to win and for the leader to lose.
But Colombian winger Kevin Serna, with a low left foot shot in the 37th minute, guaranteed the tricolor victory and in the process kept Flu away from relegation.
After the close of the competition, Botafogo will focus on the Intercontinental Cup that will be played in Qatar next week and then go on vacation.
glorious week
By embellishing the star with offensive and purposeful football, illuminated by its powerful quartet of attackers (Savarino, Luiz Henrique, Thiago Almada and Igor Jesus), Botafogo had a historic week.
Despite having played with a man less from the second minute, due to the early expulsion of Gregore, on Saturday, November 30, they defeated Atlético Mineiro 3-1 in the Brazilian final of the Copa Libertadores played in Buenos Aires.
In this way, the team led by the Portuguese Artur Jorge ceased to be the only one of the considered great teams from the land of ‘jogo bonito’ that had never won the main club tournament in America.
Throughout the international competition, however, he did not show the superiority that he exercised in the Brasileirao, where he took the lead of the tournament for the first time on the fourth day and kept it on 22 of the 38 dates.
The title was in serious risk when Palmeiras dethroned it from first place on matchday 35, taking advantage of a string of three consecutive draws for the now champion.
But Glorioso regained authority by beating the Palmeirenses 3-1 in Sao Paulo on the following date, in the considered game of the year in Brazil.
The away victory was doubly balmy: it gave them the lead again and buried fears of a repeat of the nightmare of 2023, when they squandered a 13-point lead and lost the crown at the end of the season.
