2 Brazilian Clubs in the semifinal of Libertadores: Conmebol Shuts Down the Party!

By: Bruno Romani | May 23rd, 2007

Grêmio put its secret machine of miracles to work again tonight. The club becomes a restless giant front of its fans. It is the immortal tricolor. In the first-half, the Brazilian side destroyed the 2-0 lead Defensor built in Uruguay through Tcheco (22) and Deco (45). In the second-half, Grêmio slowed down and for the first time in the evening pleased the Uruguayans. The match went to the penalties. But Grêmio was made for occasions like this. Patricio, Lúcio, Douglas and Ramón scored whereas Defensor missed two penalties. In the first time playing the Libertadores since Internacional, its biggest rival, won the tournament, Grêmio reaches a semi-final. What a sweet rivalry.

The other Brazilian semifinalist is Santos. The club faced the B team of América and had great difficulties to win. In the first-half, the Mexicans scored bringing fears of elimination since the first game ended 0-0. With América scoring away, Santos had to win the match. The comeback happened in the second-half, through Jonas (20) and Rodrigo Souto (25). The big disappointment was the number of fans at the Vila Belmiro, only 12 thousand people. Even not causing passion in the fans and media with they his team has been playing, Luxemburgo reached the semifinals of the Libertadores for the first time.

Due to the strange rules of the Conmebol, the bracket has been changed and Grêmio will take on Santos. Clubs from the same country can’t play the finals. If the original brackets were to happen, Santos would have faced Cututa from Colombia and Gremio the winner in the match between Libertad (PAR) and Boca Juniors. I’m just not sure if Conmebol is afraid of having two Mexican teams in the finals or two Brazilian sides, like in the past 2 years. Conmebol has shut down the samba.

Santos and Grêmio play next week the first leg of the semifinals in Porto Alegre. It will be thrilling.