It was always going to take a bunch of goals–just as I predicted–for my teams to get into the Finals, and goals it was as both Santos and Boca Juniors, finding themselves at the foot of the mountain after the 1st leg, hit for 3 at home.

Having lost 3-1 in Colombia, Boca needed a scoreline of 2-0 back at home (as they had the luxury of an away goal) to get past Cinderella-side Cucuta. Riquelme scored the 1st goal right before half-time while Palermo put Boca in the driver’s seat in the 2nd half. Substitute striker, Battaglia then added the insurance, and the smooth sailing, into the Finals at the final whistle.

Santos also scored 3 as they too faced a 2 goal 1st leg deficit at the hands of Gremio; unfortunately, it was only after Gremio had opened the scoring to get the vital away goal in the 2nd leg. Three goals down, Santos finally started to get its offensive engine running as they scored 3 unanswered goals in vain–as Gremio stole the limelight (despite the loss) and have booked their Finals appearance.

So, as most would anticipate, it’s Brazil vs. Argentina again this time around, and while Brazil usually edges out Argentina in the National side of things, this time it will be Buenos Aires over Porto Alegre in another Boca Copa Libertadores conquest.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Soccer World, South America, Copa Libertadores. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.