- The defending champions drew 1-1 in the second leg of the quarterfinals, with a Giorgian De Arrascaeta header in the 38th minute of the second half.
- Reasco had put Independiente del Valle ahead in the first half and Jorginho was sent off after the break; the semifinal opponent will be Estudiantes, one of their victims in the 2025 edition.
Flamengo are in the Semifinals of the CONMEBOL Libertadores for the second year in a row, but the road at the Maracanã was far more uncomfortable than the 2-0 earned in Quito suggested. Independiente del Valle went ahead in the first half, the 'Fla' were reduced to ten men in the 20th minute of the second half and had a goal ruled out against them a quarter of an hour later. Only in the 38th minute of the second half did a long ball from Agustín Rossi and a header from Giorgian De Arrascaeta seal the 1-1 that left the tie 3-1 on aggregate and confirmed the defending champions among the four best in South America, where Estudiantes await.
Joaquín Papa's side arrived in Rio de Janeiro needing to win by two goals and went looking for them from the start. In the 30th minute of the first half they opened the scoring: Matías Perelló led a quick counterattack down the right and cut the ball back, Rossi deflected it and Djorkaeff Reasco, who had earned a starting spot after coming on at halftime in Quito, tapped it into the empty net. It was only the second time in the entire edition that Flamengo had trailed in a match; according to Opta data before the tie, until then they had spent just 13 minutes and 54 seconds behind, only against Cruzeiro.
The 0-1 at the break left Independiente del Valle one goal away from penalties, and the second half gave them more reasons to believe. Leonardo Jardim went to his bench in the 14th minute of the second half, sending on De Arrascaeta for Lucas Paquetá and Gonzalo Plata for Jorge Carrascal. Six minutes later, Jorginho, already booked, picked up a second yellow card and left Flamengo with ten men for the final half hour. In the 34th minute of the second half, the 'Rayo' celebrated the 2-0 that would have taken them to a shootout, but the goal was disallowed for offside against Mateo Carabajal.
The response came four minutes later and was born in goal. Rossi, an unwitting protagonist in the Ecuadorian goal, launched a long ball that bounced over the Independiente del Valle goalkeeper, who misjudged his run off his line. De Arrascaeta got there first and headed it home. The Uruguayan, who had started on the bench, settled the tie 24 minutes after coming on, and the Argentine goalkeeper was credited with the assist.
With the aggregate at 3-1, the rest was game management: Saúl Ñíguez had already come on for Bruno Henrique, the scorer in Quito, and Varela replaced Samuel Lino late on to close out a match that ended with one shot on target apiece in the second half and with Flamengo, even a man down, dominating possession (53 percent) and shots (10-7).
The qualification confirms the trend Opta had flagged before the match: Flamengo have advanced in seven of the eight ties in which they won the first leg away in the CONMEBOL Libertadores, the only exception coming against América in 2008, and in 27 of their 29 home knockout matches they have gotten the result they needed. It is also their eighth Semifinal in the history of the CONMEBOL Libertadores and their fifth since 2019: in the previous four they reached the Final, and in three they lifted the trophy.
Independiente del Valle leave this edition with the feeling of having come close. They dominated the first leg with 18 shots and a shot off the post, went ahead at the Maracanã, played 25 minutes with a man advantage and had the 2-0 in the net until the linesman raised his flag. The rest was decided by a long ball and a header. Flamengo will face Estudiantes in the Semifinals, after last year's quarterfinal meeting; Palmeiras and Fluminense will decide the other finalist.
The match in numbers:
- Flamengo qualify for the CONMEBOL Libertadores semifinals for the eighth time (1981, 1982, 1984, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2025 and 2026), including group-format semifinals. Since 2019, only Palmeiras (6) have more appearances among the final four.
- Agustín Rossi (Flamengo) is the first goalkeeper to provide an assist in the knockout stages of the CONMEBOL Libertadores since records began (2013), and the 11th overall in that span.
- Giorgian De Arrascaeta has been directly involved in a goal in each of Flamengo's last three knockout ties in the CONMEBOL Libertadores: today's equalizer, a goal in the 2-1 win over Cruzeiro in the second leg of the Round of 16, and the assist in the 1-0 final win over Palmeiras in 2025.
- Flamengo conceded just eight shots against Independiente del Valle, five of them after the red card in the 65th minute.
- Independiente del Valle committed only three fouls against Flamengo, the fewest by any team in a CONMEBOL Libertadores knockout-stage match since records began (2013), level with Fluminense in the second leg of the 2023 semifinals and IDV themselves at home in the 2026 Round of 16.
- Independiente del Valle created two big chances today, double what Flamengo had conceded across their four previous matches combined at the Maracanã in the 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores (1).
- Independiente del Valle were the first team to open the scoring away to Flamengo in the CONMEBOL Libertadores since Central Córdoba's win in April 2025 – Matías Perelló started both of those matches, for the Ecuadorian and Argentine sides. Since then, the Rubro-Negro had won nine in a row.
- Djorkaeff Reasco of Independiente del Valle scored the second goal of his CONMEBOL Libertadores career (9 matches). He is IDV's top scorer in the 2026 Ecuadorian Serie A with 10 goals, including a brace in his last outing against Macará.
