- Six of the 15 goals scored by the 'Verdão' in this edition came from set pieces: three from corners, two from penalties and one from a throw-in. Fluminense have scored only one that way.
- It is nothing new: since 2022, Palmeiras have scored ten goals from corners in the knockout stages of the tournament, at least twice as many as any other team. Gustavo Gómez is the key man.
It was raining in Asunción and the game was locked. Forty-one minutes into the first half of the Round of 16 second leg, Jhon Arias won a corner, took it himself and the ball dropped like a dagger into the Cerro Porteño box: Gustavo Gómez headed home the 1-0 that sent Palmeiras into the Quarterfinals. The scene sums up a weapon the 'Verdão' use edition after edition, and one they bring to the Maracanã as one of the most tangible arguments of the first leg of the CONMEBOL Libertadores Semifinals: set pieces.
Opta's numbers lay it out. Six of the 15 goals scored by Palmeiras in this edition came from set pieces: three from corners, two from penalties and one from a throw-in. That is the sharpest contrast with Fluminense, who have scored only once that way, through Jefferson Savarino's penalty against Deportivo La Guaira in the Group Stage, and who build almost all of their game on long sequences: 30 build-up attacks with three goals, against 21 without a goal for Abel Ferreira's side. Where one builds patiently, the other waits for the cross.
Nor is it a 2026 trend. Since 2022, Palmeiras have scored ten goals from corners in the knockout stages of the CONMEBOL Libertadores, at least twice as many as any other team in that period. And the symbol has a name. Gustavo Gómez, the Paraguayan captain, is the highest-scoring center-back in the history of the tournament: 15 goals, all from set pieces and nine of them from corners. His goal in Asunción also extended his own record as the player who has scored in the most consecutive editions of the competition: nine, from 2018 to 2026.
The aerial game matters at both ends. Palmeiras have had 31 headed attempts in this edition, 11 more than Fluminense, and win 64% of their defensive aerial duels, the second-best record among the four semifinalists, behind Flamengo. In the second leg against Cerro Porteño, before Gómez's goal, Arias's deliveries had already produced a header from Murilo that Manuel Roffo kept out with a fine save, and another from the captain that went just wide. The man taking them has numbers too: Arias, who won the title with Fluminense in 2023 and now faces his former club, has eight assists in the competition since 2023, the second-highest tally in the tournament in that period, and is the Palmeiras player with the most key passes in this edition, with 24.
On the other side, Fluminense have the tools to deal with it. The 'Tricolor' win 57.8% of their defensive aerial duels and have made 222 clearances, 14 more than Palmeiras, and in Guga they have the squad leader in tackles and duels won in this edition, with 25 and 52. At the back, Fábio has played all 900 minutes of the campaign and made 24 saves, 14 of them inside the box, while Thiago Silva, the 41-year-old captain, marshals a back line that has never lost a knockout match at the Maracanã.
The two penalties explain the rest of the figure. José Manuel López converted his against Sporting Cristal in the Group Stage, in the 2-1 win in São Paulo, and Vitor Roque scored the one in Quito, 28 minutes into the second half of the Quarterfinal second leg against Liga de Quito, six minutes after coming on, for a 2-1 lead that seemed to settle the tie. It did not: two strikes from Michael Estrada in stoppage time took it to a penalty shootout, where a set piece decided it again, this time from the other side. Carlos Miguel saved the attempts from Lucas Rodríguez and Luis Segovia and Palmeiras won the shootout 4-3.
The figure also helps to read the rest. Palmeiras have taken 184 shots in ten matches, 59 more than Fluminense, and generated 19.4 expected goals to 11.4, but their 15 goals show that volume has not always found a way through in open play. That is why set pieces carry so much weight: they are the shortest route to goal for a team that, at the Maracanã, will face the most patient 'Flu' on the ball, a side that has never lost in 20 knockout matches at home.
Fluminense and Palmeiras have not met in the CONMEBOL Libertadores since 1971, and Wednesday's first leg will be their first knockout tie against each other. In a series that promises to be tight, with a home side unbeaten at its stadium and a visiting side that has taken points in six of its last nine away games against Brazilian opponents, every corner will have a known target. Gustavo Gómez has scored in nine consecutive editions, this one included, and few in the tournament know better than him what to do with a ball delivered from the corner.
