- The Sangolquí club won Group H, knocked out Deportes Tolima in the Round of 16 and fell to Flamengo in the Quarterfinals, 3-1 on aggregate, after taking the lead at the Maracanã and coming within touching distance of an upset.
- Carlos González finished as the team's top scorer with seven goals and Junior Sornoza reached 50 matches with the 'Matagigantes' in the CONMEBOL Libertadores, the continental title the club is still chasing.
Independiente del Valle arrived at the CONMEBOL Libertadores 2026 with its usual label, that of the most admired academy club on the continent, and turned it into results all the way to the Quarterfinals. It won Group H with 13 points, level with Rosario Central, whom it edged on head-to-head record, and in the Round of 16 it eliminated Deportes Tolima with a 1-0 in Ibagué, a headed goal by Arón Rodríguez, and a 3-1 in Quito that closed the tie 4-1 on aggregate.
The Quarterfinals pitted it against the defending champion. In the first leg, at the Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, Joaquín Papa's side dominated with 18 shots and a Carlos González effort off the post, but Flamengo settled it with two shots on target: Bruno Henrique and Léo Pereira, in the second half, sealed the 0-2 that ended the 'Rayo's' unbeaten home record against the 'Mengão'. It was the first away win in the seven meetings between the two.
The second leg at the Maracanã left the feeling of having come close. Djorkaeff Reasco opened the scoring in the 30th minute, after a counterattack by Matías Perelló, and in the 65th minute Flamengo went down to ten men with Jorginho's sending-off. Independiente del Valle even celebrated a 2-0 that would have taken the tie to penalties, ruled out for offside against Mateo Carabajal, until, in the 83rd minute, a Giorgian De Arrascaeta header sealed the 1-1 and the 3-1 aggregate.
The campaign nonetheless left marks for the record books: Opta noted that Independiente del Valle committed just three fouls at the Maracanã, the lowest figure by any team in a knockout-stage match of the CONMEBOL Libertadores since records began, and that it was the first visiting side to open the scoring against Flamengo in the Copa since April 2025. Junior Sornoza, moreover, reached 50 matches with the club in the tournament and remains the player with the most appearances, goals and assists in the 'Matagigantes'' history in the competition.
Champion of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana in 2019 and 2022 and of the CONMEBOL Recopa 2023, Independiente del Valle once again misses out on Eternal Glory, the only major continental title it lacks. Its closest run was the 2016 final; ten years on, it reached the Quarterfinals and bowed out against the champion. The project goes on: Papa's team leads the Ecuadorian league and is already thinking about the next edition.
Independiente del Valle in the 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores: Results and Schedule
Group Stage — Group H
Matchday 1: Rosario Central 0-0 Independiente del Valle
Matchday 2: Independiente del Valle 3-1 Universidad Central (44' PT Jordy Alcívar, 45+5' PT and 18' ST Carlos González / 21' PT Bolívar)
Matchday 3: Libertad 2-3 Independiente del Valle (37' PT and 40' ST Lorenzo Melgarejo, the second from the penalty spot / 33' PT, 6' ST and 20' ST Carlos González)
Matchday 4: Universidad Central 2-0 Independiente del Valle (9' ST Jan Zapata and 22' ST Juan Cuesta)
Matchday 5: Independiente del Valle 4-1 Libertad (38' PT Junior Sornoza, 43' PT Carlos González, 19' ST Justin Lerma and 45+5' ST Djorkaeff Reasco / 45+3' PT Lorenzo Melgarejo)
Matchday 6: Independiente del Valle 1-0 Rosario Central (19' ST Junior Sornoza, penalty)
Round of 16
First Leg: Deportes Tolima 0-1 Independiente del Valle (Arón Rodríguez)
Second Leg: Independiente del Valle 3-1 Deportes Tolima (Daykol Romero, Carlos González and Matías Perelló / Junior Hernández). Independiente del Valle advanced 4-1 on aggregate.
Quarterfinals
First leg: Independiente del Valle 0-2 Flamengo (61' Bruno Henrique – assist by Samuel Lino – and 75' Léo Pereira – assist by Emerson Royal)
Second leg: Flamengo 1-1 Independiente del Valle (83' Giorgian De Arrascaeta, assist by Agustín Rossi / 30' Djorkaeff Reasco). Flamengo advanced 3-1 on aggregate.
Full Independiente del Valle Squad for the 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores
Goalkeepers: 1. Aldair Quintana - 12. Bolívar Pico - 22. Guido Villar - 40. Hitan Caicedo - 70. Miguel Peralta.
Defenders: 2. Luis Zárate - 3. Christian García - 4. Jhon Espinoza - 5. Richard Schunke - 13. Daykol Romero - 14. Mateo Carabajal - 15. Gustavo Cortez - 19. Layan Loor - 23. Juan Viacava - 29. Xavi Muñoz - 33. Andy Velasco - 34. Yorddy Chonillo - 51. Deinner Ordóñez - 59. Jesús Carabalí.
Midfielders: 6. Jordy Alcívar - 7. Patrik Mercado - 8. Youri Ochoa - 10. Junior Sornoza - 16. Ronald Briones - 20. Aníbal Gómez - 21. Jean Arroyo - 27. Christian Espinoza - 28. Hugo Quintana - 30. Cristopher Núñez - 32. Jhegson Méndez - 35. Brayson Zamora - 36. Nixon Ayovi - 54. Leonel Realpe - 55. Darwin Guagua - 56. Edwin Quintero - 57. Hólger Quintero - 58. Zair Arroyo - 60. Josias Ponce.
Forwards: 9. Carlos González - 11. Matías Perello - 17. Arón Rodríguez - 18. Steven Góngora - 24. Johan Martínez - 25. Damián Latorre - 31. Emerson Pata - 50. Juan Angulo - 52. Yandri Vásquez - 99. Djorkaeff Reasco.
Independiente del Valle’s Key Player in the 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores: Junior Sornoza
The captain was the soul of the team, and his CONMEBOL Libertadores 2026 took the shape of a redemption story: sent off in the opener against Rosario Central, he owned the mistake with a public apology and came back to decide the stage, with the first goal in the rout of Libertad and the penalty against Central, on the final matchday, that gave the club first place in Group H.
In the Quarterfinals against Flamengo he hit a round number: the match at the Maracanã was the midfielder's 50th in an Independiente del Valle shirt in the CONMEBOL Libertadores, and he is now the player with the most appearances, goals and assists in the 'Rayo's' history in the Copa.
By now, his bond with the great history of Sangolquí is complete: he has eight titles with the club, including the Supercopa Ecuador won in May. A "Comandante" on and off the pitch, he remains the thread connecting the Sudamericana triumphs and the pending dream of Eternal Glory, which this time ended in the Quarterfinals.
Independiente del Valle’s Top Scorer in the 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores: Carlos González
The forward was the attacking reason behind the campaign: seven goals in the edition, six of them in the Group Stage, where he scored more than half of the team's eleven. His masterpiece was the hat-trick at La Huerta in Asunción, in the 3-2 comeback against Libertad; he also added a brace against Universidad Central in Quito, another in the 4-1 rout that closed the group and the second goal of the 3-1 against Deportes Tolima that sealed the passage to the Quarterfinals.
Against Flamengo he couldn't find the net, though he came close in the first leg: in Quito, with the game at 0-0, his shot struck the post before the champion's 0-2. His partnership with Sornoza and Alcívar made the 'Matagigantes'' attack one of the most productive of the first stage, and González closed the Copa as the club's leading marksman of the edition.
Independiente del Valle’s X-Factor in the 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores: Djorkaeff Reasco
The forward was the name of the Quarterfinals. He had come on at half-time in the first leg in Quito and earned a starting spot for the Maracanã, where in the 30th minute he tapped Matías Perelló's cut-back into an empty net for the 1-0 that put Independiente del Valle one goal away from penalties. It was the first goal by a visiting side against Flamengo in the CONMEBOL Libertadores since April 2025, according to Opta.
Reasco finished the edition with two goals, the one at the Maracanã and the one he had scored in the 4-1 over Libertad in the Group Stage, and is also the team's top scorer in the 2026 Ecuadorian Serie A, with ten. His emergence in the toughest tie of the year confirmed that the 'Rayo' has in him a box option for the project that continues.
Independiente del Valle’s History in the CONMEBOL Libertadores
Independiente del Valle is the continent's great academy phenomenon: two-time champion of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (2019 and 2022), winner of the CONMEBOL Recopa 2023 and exporter of stars such as Moisés Caicedo, Willian Pacho and Piero Hincapié. When it comes to Eternal Glory, however, its trophy cabinet is still waiting: the 2016 runner-up finish – the campaign in which it eliminated Boca Juniors and River Plate – remains its ceiling.
In 2026 it won its group again, knocked out Deportes Tolima and reached the Quarterfinals for the first time since that final, where the defending champion ended its run with a 2-0 in Quito and a 1-1 at the Maracanã. The mission that runs through an entire generation in Sangolquí remains intact: to turn the unfinished business into the biggest title of all.
