IFFHS CONTINENTAL STATISTICS - COPA LIBERTADORES
Copa Libertadores final: statistics
Atlético Mineiro vs Botafogo 1-3
*Botafogo became the 12th Brazilian club to win Copa Libertadores.
*The last two Copa Libertadores champions, Fluminense (2023) and Botafogo (2004) won the trophy for the first time in those editions.
The only string of new tournament champions in the XXI century had occurred between 2012 and 2014, three in a row (Corinthians, Atlético Mineiro and San Lorenzo).
*Botafogo are the first ever team to win the Copa Libertadores after passing 2 rounds prior to the group stage (in which they eliminated Aurora and Bragantino).
In 2009, Estudiantes became champions after overcoming 1 qualifying round (eliminating Sporting Cristal).
*Botafogo managed to win the Copa Libertadores after losing their first 2 games in the group stage (1-3 against Junior and 0-1 against LDU).
There were couple of precedent to this in the history of competition:
Peñarol in 1966 (0-4 against Nacional and 0-1 against Jorge Wilstermann),
Vasco da Gama in 1998 (0-1 against Grêmio and 0-1 against Guadalajara).
Cruzeiro made in 1997 even more amazing thing having won the tournament after 3 defeats ina row at the start (1-2 against Grêmio, 0-1 against Alianza Lima and 0-1 against Sporting Cristal).
*The final caught Atlético Mineiro in crisis: they have gone 11 consecutive winless games in all competitions (4 draws, 7 defeats).
*The Argentinean Thiago Almada from Botafogo became the first current world champion to win the Copa Libertadores since Rogério Ceni did so in 2005 with São Paulo after having won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil.
*Hulk (Atlético Mineiro) is the third player in the last decade to start in a Copa Libertadores final aged 38+, along with Felipe Melo and Fábio (both with Fluminense in 2023).
*Eduardo Vargas (Atlético Mineiro) is only the 4th player to score in both the Copa Libertadores (2024) and Copa Sudamericana (2011) finals, along with Orlando Berrío (Atlético Nacional), Carlos Tevez (Boca Juniors) and Rodrigo Palacio (also Boca Juniors).
*Eduardo Vargas is the first Chilean player to score for a team not Chilean in a Copa Libertadores final (not counting Daniel López's own goal for Sao Paulo in 1993).
A Chilean player last scored in the tournament final in 1991 (Leonel Herrera for Colo Colo, against Olimpia).
*Artur Jorge (Botafogo) is the 3rd Portuguese coach to reach the Libertadores final, after Jorge Jesus (2019, with Flamengo) and Abel Ferreira (2020 and 2021, with Palmeiras); in all 4 cases they became champions.
Only two other Europeans reached the decision: the Hungarian Béla Guttmann (1962, lost with Peñarol) and the Croatian Mirko Jozic (1992, won with Colo-Colo).