Mar 12, 2024, 5:26 p.m. ET
Even though the CONMEBOL Libertadores is a pending account for Peruvian soccerseveral national teams have had great campaigns throughout the more than sixty years of history of the main South American tournament. University, Lima Alliance y Sporting Cristal they left their mark beyond not having been able to do the Olympic lap.
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Peru, which has successfully represented South America in World Cups and has won Copa América, sees the Libertadores as a distant wish. However, University in 1972 y Sporting Cristal in 1997 reached the final and several schools reached advanced levels.
University
Universitario was the first Peruvian in the Libertadoresin 1961 and also the first to overcome the initial round, when in 1967 reached the semi-finals (This is what the second round was called, in which those classified were separated into two groups of three or four members). Universitario qualified after finishing second in cruise and then he had an excellent campaign, in which defeated River Plate and the future champion Racing Club as a visitor. The defeat at home against the Avellaneda team did not allow them to reach the grand final.
Five years later, the cream team did manage to overcome the semi-finals. With the Uruguayan Roberto Scarone as coach y Hector Chumpitaz y Percy Rojas as figuresfell in front of Independentwhich thus began its streak of four consecutive titles. University fulfilled a real feat in semisgiven that eliminated Nacional y Penarol from Uruguay, two giants of the time.
Universitythe best Peruvian representative in the history of the Libertadores, also He played the semis in 1975while reached the quarterfinals in 1968, 1970 y 1971 and the eighths in 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1999 y 2010.
Sporting Cristal
Cristal was at the gates of glory in 1997when lost the grand final against Cruzeiro. The team directed by Sergio Markariánwhich had Julius Caesar Balerio, Nolberto Solano y Luis Alberto Bonnet as symbols he eliminated the powerful Argentines Velez Sarsfield y Racing along the way and he also did the same with Lima Alliance. In the definition, they tied without goals in Lima and lost by the minimum in Belo Horizonte.
Lima Alliance
Alianza Lima reached the semifinals twiceboth with the old format: 1976 y 1978. The seventies were the best years of the intimate painting. With the world cup Jaime Duarte, Hugo Sotil, Teófilo Cubillas, Jose Velasquez, Guillermo La Rosa y César Cueto as figureswon the Simón Bolívar Cup and he had two outstanding campaigns in the Libertadores.
In this century, only one team managed to get among the best eight of a Libertadores, Real Garcilaso in 2013. The Cusco team eliminated Nacional from Uruguay in the round of 16 and lost to Santa Fe from Colombia. His classic rival had made history in 2003, when he won the South American Cup and gave the first international title to Peruvian soccer (later he added the Cup Winners’ Cup).
Lima Defender in 1974, Huaral Union in 1990, Scientist in 2002 y Saint Martin’s University in 2009 they also managed get through the first round.