Estudiantes Went Down to Ten at the Maracanã and Still Knocked Out Flamengo

1. Estudiantes Went Down to Ten at the Maracanã and Still Knocked Out Flamengo (CHOSEN)
2. A Year After Rossi Sent Flamengo Through on Penalties, Muslera Sent Them Out
3. The Maracanã Gave Flamengo 90 Goalless Minutes, Then Muslera Took the Shootout

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A year ago at Estudiantes’ Estadio UNO, Agustín Rossi saved kicks from Gastón Benedetti and Santiago Ascacíbar and Flamengo advanced 4-2 on penalties. On Thursday night at the Maracanã, Fernando Muslera saved kicks from Jorginho and Lucas Paquetá and Estudiantes advanced 3-2. Neither goalkeeper changed clubs in between.

Jorginho stood in both shootouts. In that 2025 quarterfinal he converted his penalty as Flamengo went through; on Thursday Muslera dived to his right and held it, then went right again for Paquetá’s. José Sosa, Eros Mancuso and Tiago Palacios converted for Estudiantes. Edwuin Cetré slipped as he struck his and sent it over the bar. Arrascaeta and Léo Pereira scored for Flamengo. Bruno Henrique missed. The shootout ended 3-2 before Estudiantes needed their fifth kick. Across the two legs there were 180 minutes of football plus stoppage time and not a single goal.

By the shootout, Estudiantes had been a man down for the better part of an hour. Baltasar Rodríguez, the midfielder who had told reporters before the trip that “we trust we can win at the Maracanã,” collected his second yellow four minutes after the restart, and from there the Argentines defended a 0-0 against the holders with ten men. Joaquín Correa had already gone off injured in the 38th minute, so Alexander Medina burned two enforced changes before halftime and never got either back.

Five months earlier, at this same stadium, Muslera had handed Flamengo the goal that beat Estudiantes: on May 20, in the group stage, his error let Pedro in for the only goal of a 1-0 Flamengo win. At the hydration break that night he apologized to his teammates, and Medina cut him off: “Stop messing around, don’t break… you’ve saved us a thousand times.” On Thursday he kept Gonzalo Plata’s 81st-minute header out while bleeding from a cut lip. Paquetá’s header sailed close five minutes later. He saved two of the five penalties he faced.

Medina had promised the night a week earlier, in the pre-match press room: “We will leave our lives at the Maracanã to put Estudiantes back in a Copa Libertadores final.” He added that his team would not go to Brazil “to hide or to see what happens.” Muslera, sitting beside him that day, had leaned on the squad’s mix of old winners and young runners: “We have a squad with players of great hierarchy who already know what it is to win this cup… and also on the freshness of the young players who run and fight to give us that extra these stages demand.” (Quotes translated from Spanish.)

Marcos Rojo started only because the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared him at the last minute, and played 77 minutes before Tomás Palacios replaced him. The 36-year-old rescinded his Racing contract to rejoin the club that raised him. A year ago he stood at this same stadium scoring an own goal for Racing in Flamengo’s 1-0 semifinal win. The clearance that put him on Thursday’s teamsheet had arrived hours before the squad flew to Rio. Palmeiras await in the final at Montevideo’s Centenario on November 28, after the other semifinal was also settled from the spot on Wednesday: Palmeiras lost 1-0 to Fluminense and advanced 5-3.