Seven titles in a row up to 2025 and three semi-finalists in 2026: how Brazil took over the Libertadores

The 2026 Libertadores reaches the semi-finals with three Brazilian clubs among the last four. Under the draw confirmed by CONMEBOL on 18 September, Palmeiras face Fluminense and Flamengo meet Argentina's Estudiantes, with the games in the weeks of 14 and 21 October, according to Brazilian outlet ge. Because Palmeiras and Fluminense play each other, the single-match final, scheduled for 28 November in Montevideo, will have at least one Brazilian club.

This mirrors the pattern of the editions from 2019 to 2025. Brazilian clubs won every edition from 2019 to 2025, seven in a row, and in five of them the final was between two clubs from the country. Before 2020, the competition had had only two all-Brazilian finals, in 2005 and 2006, according to CONMEBOL.

The Brazilian era, final by final

The 2019 final in Lima was the first played as a single match, and Flamengo came from behind against River Plate with two goals from Gabigol, in the 89th minute and in stoppage time. The 2020 final was only played in January 2021, at the Maracanã. In the two finals against a club from outside Brazil, against River Plate in 2019 and Boca Juniors in 2023, the Argentine sides lost.

The champion's prize money doubled over the period. As champions in 2019, Flamengo received 12 million dollars, according to CONMEBOL; in 2025, for their fourth title, they took 24 million. In 2026, the club secured another 2.3 million dollars just for reaching the semi-finals, according to ge.

What Argentina did before

One country dominating the tournament is nothing new. According to CONMEBOL's official list of champions, Argentine clubs featured in all 17 finals from 1963 to 1979 and won four editions in a row twice, from 1967 to 1970 and from 1972 to 1975. The Brazilian run from 2019 to 2025 stands at seven titles, and columnist Douglas Ceconello, of ge, calls it unprecedented in the tournament's history.

Before the 2026 semi-finals, Flamengo and Estudiantes had four titles each, Palmeiras had three and Fluminense one, according to ge.

The explanations

There is no official explanation for the run. For Ceconello, a journalist and one of the founders of Impedimento.org, the economic power of Brazilian clubs, combined with the organisation of clubs such as Palmeiras and Flamengo, suggests that the imbalance is likely to grow. He writes that Boca Juniors and River Plate, despite having greater economic potential than most clubs on the continent, spend poorly and are badly run, and he points to Flamengo's comeback against River in 2019 as the symbolic starting point of the hegemony.

The columnist also counted places: according to him, Brazilian clubs took 13 of the 20 semi-final places in the five editions from 2022 to 2026, and Brazil had at least two semi-finalists in every edition from 2018 to 2026.

It was not a smooth ride in 2026: according to Ceconello, Fluminense, Palmeiras and Flamengo all suffered, each in their own way. Palmeiras knocked out LDU on penalties, and Corinthians went out in the quarter-finals, according to ge. For the columnist, the penalty missed by Memphis Depay stopped the semi-finals from looking like the Brazilian Cup.

What comes next

The semi-finals are played over two legs, in the weeks of 14 and 21 October, according to ge. In the knockout record compiled by the outlet, which includes other competitions, Palmeiras had won all three knockout ties they played against Fluminense before the 2026 semi-finals, none of them in the Libertadores. Flamengo had come out on top in four of their five ties against Estudiantes, and only the 2025 tie was in the Libertadores.

The single-match final is scheduled for 28 November in Montevideo and will be the second single-match final held in the Uruguayan capital, according to CONMEBOL. If the champion is Brazilian, it will be the country's eighth title in a row.