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Who will be crowned champion of the 2024 Copa Libertadores?
euronews (in English)
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28/11/2024
Atlético Mineiro meets Botafogo in the 2024 Copa Libertadores final. The best club side in South America will be decided at Argentina’s Estadio Mâs Monumental Stadium.
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00:00
South America's premier domestic competition is set for a thrilling conclusion,
00:05
with Atletico Mineiro taking on Botafogo in an all-Brazilian affair
00:09
in the final of the 2024 Copa Libertadores.
00:13
So, who will be crowned the continent's best club?
00:20
Hello and welcome to Football Now from Albira Park in Doha.
00:24
Anticipation is rising for the final of the 2024 Copa Libertadores.
00:29
Between two Brazilian sides, Atletico Mineiro and Botafogo.
00:33
Being crowned continental champions is on the line,
00:36
as is qualification for both the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup,
00:40
which is being hosted here in Doha next month,
00:42
and the brand new 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
00:45
So, just how much does this tournament mean to both supporters of these teams,
00:49
as well as South American football in general?
00:52
Well, this is South America's Champions League,
00:56
and South America is one of the two big continents of football.
01:01
There's no World Cup in 1930 without the South American contribution.
01:05
South America has the team that's won the World Cup most times,
01:08
and it has the current champions of the World Cup.
01:10
So, from a South American perspective, they bitterly resent the fact
01:13
that they can't just go straight to a game against the European champions,
01:17
that they've got to play teams from other confederations first.
01:19
In Europe, winning the Champions League is an end in itself.
01:22
In South America, winning the Libertadores is a very, very big deal,
01:26
but it also opens the gates to paradise,
01:29
the chance to fight for the title of being the best club side in the world.
01:33
That plays very, very big over here.
01:35
Let's take a look at both teams then,
01:37
and just what it took for them to both reach the final.
01:40
Atletico Mineiro are bidding to win just their second Copa Libertadores,
01:44
after their maiden success back in 2013.
01:48
Mineiro topped the strong group, featuring Uruguayan giants Penarol,
01:52
and scored the most goals of any team in the early stages.
01:56
After seeing off Argentina's San Lorenzo in the round of 16,
01:59
they beat fellow Brazilian heavyweights Fluminense in the quarterfinals,
02:03
before securing their place in the decider
02:05
with a 3-0 win over Argentine champions River Plate.
02:09
They've been incredibly impressive,
02:11
and what people who don't watch South American football need to realise
02:15
is there's games almost three or four days,
02:17
whether it's the league, whether it's the Copa Libertadores,
02:20
whether it's Copa do Brasil.
02:21
So where Mineiro haven't performed particularly well in the league,
02:24
they've made two finals, Copa do Brasil final,
02:27
and also now Copa Libertadores finals.
02:29
I think a lot of people will be looking at Hulk and be surprised
02:31
that he's still going.
02:33
He's been phenomenal in the league with Paulinho,
02:35
and the addition of Davison has been unbelievable.
02:38
He scored the brace against Fluminense in the quarterfinals,
02:42
he scored a brace against River Plate.
02:44
A lot of attention will be on Hulk because of his name and his career,
02:47
but it really is going to be Davison who could be the difference
02:50
for Mineiro in this final.
02:52
After only winning promotion from Serie B back in the 2021-22 season,
02:56
Botafogo have enjoyed a meteoric rise up the ranks
02:59
to become one of Brazil's best teams.
03:02
So could the fairy tale be complete here
03:04
by them lifting their first ever Copa Libertadores?
03:08
Entering in the early qualifying stages of the tournament,
03:11
Botafogo have had a much tougher path to the final
03:13
than their opponents.
03:15
Seeded 14th out of the remaining teams in the round of 16,
03:19
they then overcame two Brazilian heavyweights.
03:21
First was Palmeiras, and then they squeezed past Sao Paulo on penalties.
03:26
They secured their spot in the final with a comprehensive 6-3 semifinal win
03:30
on aggregate over Uruguay's Peneral.
03:33
Botafogo are currently leading this year's Serie A
03:36
and should have won the league title last season
03:38
if it wasn't for a remarkable collapse towards the end of the campaign.
03:42
Leading the table by 14 points at the halfway mark,
03:45
they failed to win any of their last 11 games
03:48
and fell to 5th in the table.
03:50
So could winning this year's Copa go some way
03:52
to erasing the heartbreak of last season?
03:55
It's been a rollercoaster.
03:57
What happened last season happened last season,
03:59
and whatever's going to happen this year is yet to be written.
04:02
Coming from the stand and the fans,
04:04
there is that kind of like, oh, man, is it going to happen again?
04:07
But I don't think it's something on the players' mind.
04:10
It just serves as a reminder of, this is what happened to that squad,
04:13
but we're a different mindset.
04:14
So much so that our performance this year
04:16
is already better than the performance that it was last year.
04:19
And by this time last year, the collapse had already,
04:22
it was already underway.
04:23
Botafogo started at the qualifying stages for the Libertadores,
04:26
so we weren't even in the group stage.
04:28
And then we just started winning.
04:29
Botafogo played a total of 11 Libertadores titles.
04:33
São Paulo has won some, Nacional has won some,
04:36
Palmeiras has won some.
04:37
We didn't even think we were going to make it to the group stage,
04:39
and here we are in the final.
04:40
So I rate our chances very good, but I think we can win it, yeah.
04:43
Now, since 2019, the final of the Copa Libertadores
04:47
has been played on neutral ground.
04:49
And this year, the venue is the Estadio Mas Monumental in Argentina,
04:53
the home of River Plate and some 2,000 kilometers away
04:56
from both sets of fans.
04:58
So how will this affect the atmosphere?
05:00
And is there a growing concern that future tournaments
05:02
could be played outside of South America?
05:05
I think there is an entirely legitimate concern
05:09
that this is going to happen with the Libertadores.
05:11
You mentioned there the Copa America.
05:13
We've now had two inside the last 10 years in the United States.
05:17
It makes even more sense to do this with the club game
05:19
than it does with national teams.
05:21
So one possible solution is on a kind of tournament basis,
05:26
almost certainly in the United States.
05:29
There's a real problem now for the Libertadores,
05:32
and that is that the Brazilians have become so much better than the rest
05:35
that it would seem that the Pan-American solution
05:38
is the only solution to keeping it interesting.
05:40
It's set to be another thrilling final in South America.
05:43
Let us know who you think will be crowned continental champions
05:46
using the hashtag Football Now Copa Libertadores.
05:49
That's all we've got time for here from Albedo Park in Doha.
05:53
We'll see you next time. Bye for now.
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