2007 Copa Libertadores Finals
The 2007 Copa Libertadores Final was a two-legged football match-up to determine the 2007 Copa Libertadores champion. The series was contested between Club Atlético Boca Juniors from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Grêmio, from Porto Alegre, Brazil. The first leg of the tie was played on June 13 at Boca Juniors' home field, La Bombonera, with the second leg played on June 20 at Gremio's Estádio Olímpico. Boca Juniors won the series 5–0 on aggregate.[1]
| Event | 2007 Copa Toyota Libertadores | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| on aggregate | |||||||
| First leg | |||||||
| |||||||
| Date | 13 June 2007 | ||||||
| Venue | La Bombonera, Buenos Aires | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Juan Román Riquelme | ||||||
| Referee | Jorge Larrionda | ||||||
| Attendance | 50,993 | ||||||
| Second leg | |||||||
| |||||||
| Date | 20 June 2007 | ||||||
| Venue | Estádio Olímpico, Porto Alegre | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Juan Román Riquelme | ||||||
| Referee | Oscar Ruiz | ||||||
| Attendance | 53,952 | ||||||
Qualified teams
| Team | Previous finals appearances (bold indicates winners) |
|---|---|
 Boca Juniors |
1963, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 |
 Grêmio |
1983, 1984, 1995 |
Venues
Route to the finals
| Grêmio | Boca Juniors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| São Paulo A 0–1 | Round of 16 First leg | Vélez Sársfield H 3–0 | Riquelme 9' Palermo 61' Rodríguez 89' | ||
| São Paulo H 2–0 | Tcheco 17' Diego Souza 74' | Second leg | Vélez Sársfield A 1–3 | Bustos (o.g.) 32' | |
 Defensor Sporting A 0–2 | Quarterfinals First leg |  Libertad H 1–1 | Palermo 90' | ||
| Defensor Sporting H 2–0 (p. 4–2) | Tcheco 22' Teco 45' | Second leg | Libertad A 2–0 | Riquelme 61' Palacio | |
| Santos H 2–0 | Tcheco 34' Carlos Eduardo 36' | Semifinals First leg |  Cúcuta Deportivo A 1–3 | Ledesma 27' | |
| Santos A 1–3 | Diego Souza 34' | Second leg | Cúcuta Deportivo H 3–0 | Riquelme 44' Palermo 61' Battaglia 90' | |
Final summary
First leg
          Boca Juniors
|
     Grêmio
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Man of the Match:
Assistant referees:
|
Second leg
| Grêmio | 0–2 | Boca Juniors |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Riquelme  69', 81' |
 Grêmio
|
Boca Juniors
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Man of the Match:
Assistant referees:
|
Aftermath
With this appearance in the last stage Boca Juniors achieved a record-tie 9 times in the finals, winning five of the seven previous occasions. At that moment only Peñarol of Uruguay had played that number of finals. The media praised Juan Román Riquelme's performance in the finals, crediting him as Boca Juniors' most notable player. Riquelme had returned to Boca Juniors after a frustrating experience in Spanish club Villarrea where manager Manuel Pellegrini excluded him from the senior squad due to personal disputes.[2] Under the guidance of manager Miguel Ángel Russo, Riquelme was the top scorer of the team (and second of the 2007 edition behind Salvador Cabañas with 8 goals in 11 matches, three of them in the finals.[3]
Riquelme made it easy to win the Copa Libertadores
The (Libertadores) Cup is like the girl you want but she ignores you
The 5–0 aggregate score remains nowadays as the largest victory in the history of Copa Libertadores' finals.[4]
On the other hand, Grêmio –that had played three finals winning two of them– became the second Brazilian club with most Copa Libertadores finals contested (four until then), just behind of São Paulo who had six.
References
- Copa Libertadores 2007 by Juan Pablo Andrés on the RSSSF
- El mejor Riquelme on TN, 26 Jan 2015
- Orteman: "Riquelme hizo fácil la Libertadores" by Damián Espinoza on Deportea Online, 22 June 2017
- La sexta Copa de Boca Archived 2015-02-04 at the Wayback Machine by Damián Ferrero on Diario Publicable, 28 Oct 2013