Copa Libertadores. Nacional (Montevideo) entered at the semi-final stage, all other teams depended on the luck of the draw at first as usual. Five groups of 4 teams each, only the winners qualified to the semi-finals. The Uruguayans were the luckiest, playing with the Venezuelan representatives. No fight at all in Group 5: Penarol and Bella Vista had it easy and the only question was who will be number one. As it turned out, the decisive match was the very first one in the group – Penarol beat Bella Vista 3-1 and in the long run this victory ensured them the first place, 2 points ahead of Bella Vista.
Group 1 opposed the Argentines to the Colombians. River Plate was the obvious favourite, but… the team full of reigning world champions lost both legs to Deportivo Cali and consequently finished second. Deportivo Cali lost to Atletico Junior and Rosario Central, so they had the same number of losses as River Plate. However, the Colombians won all other matches, unlike River Plate – it was the other visit to Colombia which decided their fate: Atletico Junior tied River Plate 0-0 and at the end Deportivo Cali triumphed with 1 point more than mighty River Plate.
Group 2 opposed Chilean to Peruvians, fairly equal and balanced group, where anything was possible. It remained exactly that – a duel between rival neighbours. Cobreloa and Sporting Cristal emerged as favourites and 1 point difference decided the winner. It was a surprise one: Cobreloa (Calama), debutants in the tournament. The Chilean sensation did not lose any group match and excelled in something else: along with Penarol, they finished with the best defensive record in the first stage, allowing only 3 goals in 5 matches. In the same time they shared with Flamengo the second best striking record with 14 goals – only Bella Vista (Montevideo) scored more – 16.
Group 3 was supposed to be tough one: Brazilians vs Paraguayans. Skill vs grit, in theory, for Brazilian players were quite dirty and dull in the recent years, and Paraguayans topped South America not long ago on both club and national team level. But nothing difficult this season – the Brazilian clubs were way stronger and fought between themselves. And fought they did… Flamengo and Atletico Mineiro finished with 8 points each after winning 2 matches and tying 4. Goal-difference did not count and the rivals met in a decisive play-off on neutral ground in Goiania. The play-off did not finish – the match was stopped and abandoned in the 35th minute. The result was 0-0, but Flamengo was awarded the win. It was perhaps one of the greatest curiosity in football history: in the 35th minute Atletico Mineiro had its 5th expelled player! Only 6 players remained on the pitch and the ancient rule – so rarely used, people tend to forget its existence – called the end: a team has to have at least 7 players on the pitch, so the game to be allowed.
Play-off decided the winner of Group 4 too, but it was just a normal game. Bolivian vs Ecuadorians quickly became a battle between Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) and The Strongest (La Paz) – traditional Bolivian rivalry. Both teams finished with 8 points and The Strongest had better goal-difference, but a play-of had to be played and was, in Santa Cruz. Now Jorge Wilstermann destroyed The Strongest 4-1, Jairzinho scoring two goals. Jorge Wilstermann qualified, adding one more curiosity to this edition of Copa Libertadores: they qualified without having positive goal-difference.
The semi-final groups was clearly fortunate for Flamengo – their opponents were Deportivo Cali (Colombia) and Jorge Wilstermann (Ecuador). Practically, no opposition – Flamengo won every game they played. The other group was theoretically tougher – two great Uruguayan enemies, Nacional and Penarol, plus Cobreloa (Chile), which was expected to be the outsider. What a surprise! Cobreloa won 3 and tied 1 match, leaving the famous clubs back in the dust. Nacional and Penarol finished without a single victory, evidently suffering from the matches between themselves – both 1-1 draws. Cobreloa took advantage from its home games, but they surprised Nacional in Montevideo, beating them 2-1. And thus the finalists were Flamengo (Rio de Janeiro) and Cobreloa (Calama). Still practically unknown debutantes vs one of the most famous clubs in South America, which, however, not only did not win Copa Libertadores so far, but never even reached a final. One can easily imagine the level of ambition in both camps and also is good to remember that the winner of Copa Libertadores often was decided after 3 games. A decisive play-off did not happened after 1977 and given the difference in class between the finalists – at least on paper – was hardly expected this year.
In front of almost 94, 000 fans the first leg of the final started at Maracana on November 13, 1981.
Captains Soto and Zico shake hands and after that the smiles are gone.
Flamengo attacked, Cobreloa defended, and the result stayed 0-0 until the 12th minute.
Then Zico scored and a bit later scored again – in the 30th minute Flamengo was leading 2-0. Game over? Not at all – in the second half Cobreloa managed to return one goal and the match ended 2-1.
1st leg. Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, 13-11-1981
Flamengo – Cobreloa 2-1
12′ Zico 1-0
30′ Zico 2-0
65′ Merello 2-1
Flamengo: Raúl, Leandro, Figueiredo, Mozer, Júnior, Andrade, Zico, Adilio, Lico
(Baroninho), Nunes, Tita.
Cobreloa: Wirth, Rojas, Soto, Tabilo, Escobar, Alarcón, Jiménez, Merello, Múñoz
(R. Gómez), Siviero, Puebla.
Referee: Espósito (Argentina)
Attendance: 93,985
A week later Flamengo kept Cobreloa at bay until 79th minute, when Merello scored his second goal in the finals and the only one in Santiago.
Zico down, Cobreloa in fighting mood. It was all or nothing.
Raul on his knees – Victor Merello scored and Cobreloa won.
2nd leg. Estadio Nacional, Santiago, 20-11-1981
Cobreloa – Flamengo 1-0
79′ Merello 1-0
Cobreloa: Wirth, Jiménez, Tabilo, Soto, Escobar, Merello, Alarcón, R. Gómez
(Múñoz), Puebla, Siviero, W. Olivera.
Flamengo: Raúl, Leandro, Figueiredo, Mozer, Júnior, Andrade, Adilio, Zico, Lico
(Baroninho), Nunes (Nei Dias), Tita.
Referee: Barreto (Uruguay)
Attendance: 61,721
For the first time since 1977 Copa Libertadores final had to be decided by a third match. It was played on neutral ground – in Montevideo, Uruguay, which immediately dropped the audience. Three days after Cobreloa won, it was Flamengo in full flight.
Of course, it was tough match, but eventually Flamengo was getting the upper hand.
And the Brazilians were running away from the Chileans.
Defending well, but defense can survive assaults only so far.
Zico was unstoppable and in the 18th minute he scored. 11 minutes before the final whistle, he scored again – now it was over. One of his goals was a beauty:
A magnificent free kick, making Oscar Wirth entirely helpless. It is good to recall those days: a wall was never positioned at the required distance and moved ahead before the kicker reached the ball.
Zico finished Cobreloa – he scored all the goals for Flamengo, but this one was the sweetest.
Play-off. Centenario, Montevideo, 23-11-1981
Flamengo – Cobreloa 2-0
18′ Zico 1-0
79′ Zico 2-0
Flamengo: Raúl, Nei Dias, Marinho, Mozer, Júnior, Leandro, Andrade, Zico, Tita,
Nunes (Anselmo), Adilio.
Cobreloa: Wirth, Tabilo, Páez (Múñoz), Soto, Escobar, Jiménez, Merello, Alarcón,
Puebla, Siviero, W. Olivera.
Referee: Cerullo (Uruguay)
Attendance: 30,200
And now Copa Libertadores was given to the White Pele. The rest was just happiness.
Life is much better with cup in hands.
Flamengo – campeon!
Cobreloa came close… Of course, there was regret. Yet, the boys from mine town Calama were heroes. Four years ago nobody heard of them. They were still almost unknown in 1981. They were the third Chilean club failing to win Copa Libertadores, but it was still a fantastic achievement, for Cobreloa was the least famous club of all playing at the final so far. They were underdogs in every sense: they had a number of good players, but Soto, Wirth, Merello hardly qualified as huge stars – especially compared to Brazilians, even omitting Zico. Excellent job, but no cup.
Flamengo won its first Copa Libertadores – at last! It was not an easy victory, but finally the famous club managed to put itself on equal footing with the other South American grands. One can think this was a star-studded squad, but at the time it was more potential than actual stardom: Junior, Leandro, Raul, Mozer certainly became world-famous, but not this year. Even Nunes had to wait a little until the world really heard of him. The true star was Zico, pushing 30 already – to a point, his fame was recognized as rightly deserved this year: so far, he won very little on Brazilian national level and won nothing internationally. He even did not play all that much for Brazil – only at the 1978 World Cup. At last he delivered – 4 goals, that is, all Flamengo goals at the finals. It could be said that he won Libertadores alone. And this was not the end of the fairy tale yet. As good as Cobreloa were and as much as one wants the underdog triumph, Flamengo were the classier team and deserved to win.