A Look at the Quarter-Finalists.

By: Mauro | May 13th, 2008

Looking ahead to the quarter-finals, it isn’t as one sided as the round of 16 was with respect to the number of Brazilian and Argentine clubs. The balances have shifted slightly and there is only one non-Mexican, non-Argentine and non-Brazilian team left.

Atlas, who came into the Lanús tie with authority and took care of business with an important 1-0 win in the first leg in Buenos Aires, look to open their first leg of the quarter finals when they host Boca at the Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico. Atlas secured their next round status with a 2-2 draw at their ground in Mexico, last week.

Boca, also came out meaning business, outplayed Cruzeiro but failed to score more goals in the first leg at La Bomonera and only managed a 2-1 win, the away goal for the visitors coming in the waning minutes of the match. Boca then traveled to Brazil where they are fortunate to have gained some good results and won 2-1 again, this time in Belo Horizonte.

LDU Quito made short work of Estudiantes, winning 2-0 in their high altitude stadium in Ecuador and that difference was enough for them to cruise through to the next round after losing the 2nd leg in La Plata only 2-1.

San Lorenzo won the round of 16 epic battle of Argentina against River Plate. They showed tremendous heart, passion and fire in the second leg coming back miraculously from being down two goals and two men short to tie the match and qualify for the next round. Bergessio, D’Allesandro and Acevedo were fantastic. They won the first leg at home with the help of a hand ball in the area and a penalty that gave them the 2-1 win.

Fluminense might have had the easier tie only because Atlético Nacional was sort of lucky to have gotten this far. Still, they put up a good fight and Fluminense won by a slim margin in Colombia and again, a 1-0 only win in the return leg on Brazilian soil. They host fellow Brazilians, Sao Paulo in the first leg of their tie in the next round.

Sao Paulo played to scoreless draw in the first leg of their tie with Uruguayan side Nacional de Montevideo and were able to beat them, with some difficulty, in the second leg at home. They haven’t impressed while having arguably the most important player, Riquelme aside, in Adriano, still remaining in the cup.

Santos was able to beat Cúcuta twice 2-0, handily, in both legs of their round of 16 tie. Cúcuta had appeared to be a tough opponent but folded under the pressure of the Brazilian attack. Santos will host América in the first leg of their quarter final match at the Vila Belmiro before making the long flight out to Mexico City the following week for the second leg.

In the other unbelievable result of the round, América, who seemed really down and out, came back to the Maracaná and beat Flamengo 3-0 to qualify in miraculous fashion. Lots of back story here so hold on. América seemed destined to be eliminated coming into the second leg after losing at home 4-2 but what made matters worse was that their coach resigned following that defeat after many bad results. Flamengo on the other hand was just celebrating their recent Rio state championship and were looking to send off their coach Joel Santana, who was going to leave to coach the South African national team. So, in short, a HUGE result.

Gone are the Colombian teams and all that is left is the Mexican teams (Atlas, América), the Brazilians (the country with the most representatives in this round, Fluminense, Sao Paulo and Santos), the Argentines (San Lorenzo and Boca Juniors) and lastly, the sole Ecudaorian squad (LDU Quito).

It is of note that last year at this stage the competition was decidedly more mixed with a teams from not just Argentina and Brazil but two from Uruguay, one from Paraguay, one Mexican and one Colombian team. Brazil had two teams in the cup at this point last year and Argentina only one side representing them.

Check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.