- Fernando Muslera saved penalties from Jorginho, Lucas Paquetá and Bruno Henrique, and Estudiantes beat Flamengo 3-2 in a shoot-out at the Maracanã.
- Four months after a World Cup that did not go the way he had hoped, the 40-year-old Uruguayan goalkeeper will play in the November 28 Final in his home country.
When Bruno Henrique stepped up to the ball, Fernando Muslera had already saved two Flamengo penalties. He kept out the third as well, and that save settled the tie. After two goalless draws, in La Plata and at the Maracanã, Estudiantes won the shoot-out 3-2, and on Saturday, November 28, they will face Palmeiras at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo in their first CONMEBOL Libertadores Final since 2009. For their 40-year-old Uruguayan goalkeeper, it will be the first Final of his career in the competition, and on home soil, too.
Estudiantes' place in the Final was built in goal from start to finish. They played more than 40 minutes with ten men, from 5' into the second half, after Baltasar Rodríguez was sent off, and held on for a draw at a stadium where they had lost their two previous matches against Flamengo. Muslera won a one-on-one against Gonzalo Plata 42' into the second half, after the forward had got his head to a pass from Lucas Paquetá. The reigning champions arrived on a 14-match unbeaten run in the competition and had not had a shot on target in the first leg; in the 180 minutes of the tie, they were unable to score. According to Opta, only Peñarol, in the 2024 Quarterfinals, had kept Flamengo scoreless across both legs of a knockout tie in the competition.
In the shoot-out, Muslera saved from Jorginho, Paquetá and Bruno Henrique, the team's top scorer in this edition with five goals. No goalkeeper had ever saved a penalty from Jorginho in a Flamengo shirt: the midfielder had converted his previous 12. And no one had saved three in the same CONMEBOL Libertadores shoot-out, excluding the preliminary rounds, since Agustín Orión, for Boca against Nacional, in the 2016 Quarterfinals. For Estudiantes, José Sosa, Eros Mancuso and Tiago Palacios scored; Edwuin Cetré was the only one to miss.
It was the first shoot-out the 'Pincha' had ever won in the CONMEBOL Libertadores: they had lost the previous four, three of them against Brazilian sides. Their last shoot-out win in CONMEBOL competitions had come at the Centenario, the venue of the Final, against Peñarol in the 2014 CONMEBOL Sudamericana. Their most recent shoot-out defeat in the competition came 13 months ago, in the 2025 Quarterfinals, in La Plata: Gastón Benedetti's goal with the last kick of the first half had given Estudiantes a 1-0 win and taken the tie to penalties, but the goalkeeper who shone in that shoot-out was Agustín Rossi, with two saves, and Flamengo went through 4-2. This time, the hero of the shoot-out was at the other end. "In shoot-outs, the goalkeeper has that added bonus of being able to contribute", the Uruguayan explained after Thursday's decider.
For Muslera, the Final carries special meaning. He turned 40 in June, in the middle of Uruguay's World Cup preparations, and joined Estudiantes after almost two decades in Europe, with Lazio and Galatasaray. He had left Nacional for Italy at a very young age, and the CONMEBOL Libertadores was still unfinished business. In La Plata he found a boost that he described himself in April, after being given an ovation by the fans following the 1-1 draw against Flamengo: "They got me physically and mentally to 200% and put me back on the national team's radar".
That boost brought him back into the Uruguay squad and took him to his fifth World Cup, where he started all three of Uruguay's matches. The team went out in the group stage after a defeat to Spain in Guadalajara, and that night the goalkeeper spoke with his usual candor: "With all the preparation I did, this time I didn't have a good World Cup". He also said: "I've always been someone who faces up to things". Four months later, at the Maracanã, he faced up to them again at the most exposed moment for a goalkeeper, alone against each penalty taker with a Final at stake. After the match, he put it into words: "On a personal level, football always gives you another chance".
The night summed up his campaign. Muslera played every minute for Estudiantes in this edition and reached the first leg of the Semifinals with 26 saves. The 'Pincha' also kept a record intact: they have never lost a two-legged CONMEBOL Libertadores Semifinal, and they are now five from five.
The Final will have an extra dimension for him. The Centenario is the home of the Uruguay national team, with which he went to five World Cups, and Muslera will be one of that country's players contesting the Final at home. At Estudiantes he is joined by Tiago Palacios, an Argentine-born naturalized Uruguayan, and coach Alexander Medina, who in 2009 was the number nine for the Nacional side that the 'Pincha' knocked out in the Semifinals. Facing them will be Palmeiras, their opponents in the club's first Final, in 1968, which Estudiantes won in a playoff held at that very stadium. Fifty-eight years later, Muslera has the chance to settle, at home, his outstanding debt with 'Eternal Glory'. He summed it up himself after the historic clash with Flamengo: "The happiness of wanting to fulfill your dreams, of taking responsibility in the good times and the not-so-good ones".
