The World is a Ball: Palmeiras stands out in Brazilian duels in the knockout stages of Libertadores

The quarter-final playoffs of the Copa Libertadores da América (or Copa Libertadores, or simply Libertadores) start this Tuesday (2), and the fight to reach the semifinals will have two duels between Brazilians at this stage: Corinthians x Flamengo and Atletico MG vs Palmeiras.

The other clashes are between an Argentine and a Brazilian (Estudiantes x Athletico-PR) and between two Argentines (Talleres and Vélez Sarsfield).

In this text, I focus on clashes that exclusively involve Brazilian teams. Which one has the best track record in “Brazilian versus Brazilian” knockout matches?

My research, which analyzes the participation of all Brazilians throughout the Libertadores (held since 1960), shows that one of the most successful teams when facing equally national teams in the knockout stage is Palmeiras.

Considered a favorite in the championships in which it participates, due to the well-played football and the results achieved (current champion of Libertadores, current champion of São Paulo, champion of the Brazilian in 2018 and the Copa do Brasil in 2020), the team led by Abel Ferreira has its aside also the retrospect.

In 13 eliminatory clashes in Libertadores against Brazilian opponents, Palmeiras obtained the classification in eight, an advantage of 62%. The team eliminated Corinthians (twice), São Paulo, Atlético-MG, Cruzeiro, São Caetano, Sport and Vasco.

This number does not consider the finals of the 2020 and 2021 editions – in which the alviverde team defeated Santos and Flamengo, respectively – as they are a single game.

Better than Palmeiras, only Fluminense, with two classifications in two home knockouts, surpassing São Paulo and Internacional. The low number of disputes of this genre of the tricolor team, however, makes its performance not an ideal parameter.

The opponent from Palmeiras, Atlético-MG, is one of the least successful Brazilian clubs against fellow countrymen. In six qualifying matches in Libertadores, he only advanced twice (against São Paulo and Athletico-PR), or 33%.

Galo’s performance becomes even worse if the elimination in 1981 is included, when a tiebreaker game was played against Flamengo, after the group stage (there was a tie on points), with a 3-0 victory.

Reinforcing what has already been written, this was not done in this survey because it is a single game, without the occurrence of “round trip”.

Worse than Atlético-MG in playoffs against Brazilians are Athletico-PR (one win, three defeats), Botafogo (three eliminations), Bahia, Criciúma, São Caetano and Sport (one each).

Corinthians and Flamengo, opponents in these quarterfinals, have 50% and 60%, respectively, in the knockout matches with Brazilian opponents in Libertadores.

Compared to Palmeiras, however, both played much less with compatriot clubs.

The Paulistas won three disputes (Atlético-MG, Vasco and Santos) and lost another three (Palmeiras, twice, and Grêmio). Cariocas won three (Corinthians, Internacional and Grêmio) and were defeated on two occasions (São Paulo and Cruzeiro).

Below are the performances of all Brazilian teams in the home knockout matches of Libertadores – not including decisive single-game duels.

• Fluminense: 2 matches, 2 wins, 0 losses (100%)
• Palmeiras: 13 matches, 8 wins, 5 losses (62%)
• Flamengo: 5 matches, 3 wins, 2 losses (60%)
• International: 7 matches, 4 wins, 3 losses (57%)
• Gremio: 13 matches, 7 wins, 6 losses (54%)

• São Paulo: 16 matches, 8 wins, 8 losses (50%)
• Cruzeiro: 8 matches, 4 wins, 4 losses (50%)
• Corinthians: 6 matches, 3 wins, 3 losses (50%)
• Santos: 6 matches, 3 wins, 3 losses (50%)
• Vasco: 4 matches, 2 wins, 2 losses (50%)

• Atlético-MG: 6 matches, 2 wins, 4 losses (33%)
• Athletico-PR: 4 matches, 1 win, 3 losses (25%)

• Botafogo: 3 matches, 0 wins, 3 losses (0%)
• Bahia: 1 match, 0 win, 1 loss (0%)
• Criciúma: 1 match, 0 win, 1 loss (0%)
• São Caetano: 1 match, 0 win, 1 loss (0%)
• Sport: 1 match, 0 win, 1 loss (0%)