- Paquetá needed 1 minute and 22 seconds after coming on to equalize the first leg against Cruzeiro.
- With the best Group Stage and a collection of résumés spanning the Champions League, European Championships, and South American titles, the four-time champion is chasing a fifth crown.
The scene at the Mineirão lasted 82 seconds and explained years of project-building. Flamengo was losing the first leg of the CONMEBOL Libertadores Round of 16 when Leonardo Jardim looked at his bench and sent on Pedro and Lucas Paquetá. One minute and 22 seconds after stepping onto the grass, Paquetá met the rebound off the post from Léo Ortiz's header with his left foot and signed the 1-1. It was no coincidence: it was a symptom of the structural gap that separates the champion from the rest of the continent. At the 'Mengão,' the players who decide knockout series sometimes start out waiting their turn.
The roster explains why the red-and-black bench intimidates as much as the starting eleven. There sat Paquetá, a Brazil national team midfielder with stops at Milan, Lyon, and West Ham, back at the club that developed him. There sat Pedro, the number 9 with 21 goals this year — the highest tally in the squad — who at most clubs in South America would be the marquee name. And there waited Jorge Carrascal and Guillermo Varela, a talent developed at River and a fullback who caught Manchester United's eye at age 20: the "backups" of a team that plays in a different league when it comes to alternatives.
The starting eleven, meanwhile, is a collection of credentials that is hard to match. Jorginho runs the midfield with the authority of a man who won the European Championship with Italy and the Champions League with Chelsea. Saúl Ñíguez arrived after a long decade split among Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, and Sevilla, among others. Alex Sandro spent nearly a full decade as an automatic starter in Juventus's defense; Danilo, the captain, lifted two Champions League trophies with Real Madrid before his run through Manchester City and the Vecchia Signora. Emerson Royal brings a past at Tottenham and Milan; Samuel Lino left Atlético Madrid to join the cause. These are players who knew Europe's elite and chose the South American challenge with the continent's four-time champion.
On top of that European layer sits the spine that is already pure club and tournament history. Giorgian de Arrascaeta, a three-time champion of South America in the red-and-black shirt, remains the brain; Bruno Henrique, with four goals in this edition, is still the thermometer of the big nights; Agustín Rossi guards the net with a finals-tested craft. And around them orbits a South American community of proven pedigree: Nicolás de la Cruz, a serial winner with River; Erick Pulgar, the engine of Chile's national team; Gonzalo Plata, the Ecuadorian who showed once again last night that the talented ones also run on this Flamengo — his eight tackles against Cruzeiro left him as the only player in the tournament with two matches of eight or more tackles since 2025.
That last stat matters, because it dismantles the prejudice that star-studded squads coast. Jardim's Flamengo posted its highest numbers of the year in this Libertadores in tackles (23) and final-third recoveries (7) last night: on this team, pedigree also presses. The tactical X-ray of the champion has already told how the Portuguese coach used 20 of the 27 players in his squad in the tournament — a rotation that is not necessity but method — his way of keeping two full teams sharp while the calendar squeezes on three fronts.
The collective numbers complete the argument: the best Group Stage of this edition (16 points out of 18, 14 goals scored and just 2 conceded, unbeaten), wire-to-wire leadership of Group A, and a campaign that sustains what the continent has known since Lima 2025: you can draw with the champion for a night, but wearing it down over a series is another story. Cruzeiro learned it firsthand: it played a near-perfect game, with a stunning goal from Keny Arroyo as its only true strike, and still walked away with a draw that feels like too little.
The second leg on Wednesday the 19th, at 9:30 PM at the Maracanã, will find Flamengo right where it wanted to be: at home, with its fans, and with the full arsenal available. Maybe Pedro and Paquetá will start; maybe De Arrascaeta or Bruno Henrique will be the ones waiting on the bench. The detail is almost anecdotal, and therein lies the message the 'Mengão' left for the continent in Belo Horizonte: in the pursuit of the five-time championship that Brazilian soccer has never seen, the opponent has to beat one team — and then the other.
