1981 Copa Libertadores

1981 Copa Libertadores de América
Tournament details
Dates	March 18 – November 23
Teams	21 (from 10 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Flamengo (1st title)
Runners-up	Cobreloa
Tournament statistics
Matches played	77
Goals scored	221 (2.87 per match)
Top scorer	Zico (11 goals)
	← 1980 1982 →

Last updated December 07, 2025

The 1981 Copa Libertadores was won by Flamengo of Brazil, who beat Cobreloa of Chile in the finals, without losing a match in their campaign on the way to win their first title.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Qualified teams

Country	Team	Qualify method
CONMEBOL (1 berth)	Nacional	1980 Copa Libertadores champion
Argentina 2 berths	Rosario Central	1981 Campeonato Nacional champions
Argentina 2 berths	River Plate	1981 Campeonato Metropolitano champions
Bolivia 2 berths	Jorge Wilstermann	1980 Primera División champion
Bolivia 2 berths	The Strongest	1980 Primera División runner-up
Brazil 2 berths	Flamengo	1980 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champion
Brazil 2 berths	Atlético Mineiro	1980 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 2nd place
Chile 2 berths	Cobreloa	1980 Primera División champion
Chile 2 berths	Universidad de Chile	1980 Liguilla Pre-Copa Libertadores winner
Colombia 2 berths	Junior	1980 Campeonato Profesional champion
Colombia 2 berths	Deportivo Cali	1980 Campeonato Profesional runner-up
Ecuador 2 berths	Barcelona	1980 Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol Serie A champion
Ecuador 2 berths	Técnico Universitario	1980 Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol Serie A runner-up
Paraguay 2 berths	Olimpia	1980 Primera División champion
Paraguay 2 berths	Cerro Porteño	1980 Primera División runner-up
Peru 2 berths	Sporting Cristal	1980 Torneo Descentralizado champion
Peru 2 berths	Atlético Torino	1980 Torneo Descentralizado runner-up
Uruguay 2 berths	Peñarol	1980 Liguilla Pre-Libertadores winner
Uruguay 2 berths	Bella Vista	1980 Liguilla Pre-Libertadores runner-up
Venezuela 2 berths	Estudiantes de Mérida	1980 Primera División champion
Venezuela 2 berths	Portuguesa	1980 Primera División runner-up

Draw

The champions and runners-up of each football association were drawn into the same group along with another football association's participating teams. Three clubs from Uruguay competed as Nacional was champion of the 1980 Copa Libertadores. They entered the tournament in the Semifinals.

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5
Argentina Colombia	Uruguay Venezuela	Brazil Paraguay	Bolivia Ecuador	Peru Chile

Group stage

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	CALI	RIV	CEN	JUN
1	Deportivo Cali	6	4	0	2	10	6	+4	8	Qualified to the Semi-Finals	—	2–1	1–0	4–1
2	River Plate	6	3	1	2	9	6	+3	7		1–2	—	3–2	3–0
3	Rosario Central	6	3	0	3	11	7	+4	6		2–1	0–1	—	5–0
4	Junior	6	1	1	4	3	14	−11	3		1–0	0–0	1–2	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	PEÑ	BVI	EST	POR
1	Peñarol	6	5	1	0	13	3	+10	11	Qualified to the Semi-Finals	—	3–1	4–2	3–0
2	Bella Vista	6	4	1	1	16	5	+11	9		0–0	—	3–1	4–0
3	Estudiantes de Mérida	6	0	2	4	5	14	−9	2		0–2	1–4	—	1–1
4	Portuguesa	6	0	2	4	1	13	−12	2		0–1	0–4	0–0	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	FLA	CAM	CER	OLI
1	Flamengo (A, O)	6	2	4	0	14	9	+5	8	Qualified to the Semi-Finals	—	2–2	5–2	1–1
2	Atlético Mineiro (A)	6	2	4	0	8	6	+2	8		2–2	—	2–2	1–0
3	Cerro Porteño	6	1	2	3	9	12	−3	4		2–4	0–1	—	0–0
4	Olimpia	6	0	4	2	1	5	−4	4		0–0	0–0	0–3	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
(A) Advances to First-place playoff match; (O) Playoff winner; advances to semi-finals

3 July 1981	Atletico Mineiro	2–2	Flamengo	Mineirão, Belo Horizonte
	Éder 28', 63'		Nunes 65' Marinho 85'	Attendance: 63,153 Referee: José Roberto Wright (Brazil)

7 July 1981

Cerro Porteño

0–0

Olimpia

Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción

14 July 1981	Flamengo	5–2	Cerro Porteño	Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
	Zico 20', 27' Baroninho 47' Nunes 62', 62'		Jimenes 62' Julio Dos Santos 90'	Attendance: 25,967 Referee: Carlos Montalvan (Brazil)

17 July 1981

Olimpia

0–0

Atletico Mineiro

Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción

21 July 1981

Cerro Porteño

0–1

Atletico Mineiro

Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción

24 July 1981	Flamengo	1–1	Olimpia	Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
	Adilio 22'		Solalinde 60'	Attendance: 38,718 Referee: Abel Gnecco

28 July 1981

Atletico Mineiro

1–0

Olimpia

Mineirão, Belo Horizonte

31 July 1981

Atletico Mineiro

2–2

Cerro Porteño

Mineirão, Belo Horizonte

7 August 1981	Flamengo	2–2	Atletico Mineiro	Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
	Nunes 67' Tita 69'		Palhinha 62' Reinaldo 69'	Attendance: 62,763 Referee: Carlos Rosa Martins

8 August 1981

Olimpia

0–3

Cerro Porteño

Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción

11 August 1981	Cerro Porteño	2–4	Flamengo	Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción
	Acost 69' Jimenes 72'		Baroninho 7' Zico 58', 65', 70'	Attendance: 13,000 Referee: Roque Cerullo

14 August 1981	Olimpia	0–0	Flamengo	Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción
				Attendance: 25,000 Referee: José Martizez Bazan

First-place playoff match 21 August 1981	Flamengo	0-0	Atlético Mineiro	Estádio Serra Dourada, Goiânia
				Attendance: 72,000 Referee: José Roberto Wright
Note: The match was suspended at 37 minutes of the first half, after 5 players of Atlético Mineiro received red cards. By association football rules a team is disqualified if it has fewer than 7 players. Therefore Flamengo won by WO.

Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	STR	WIL	BAR	TEC
1	The Strongest	6	4	2	13	9	+4	8		—	2–0	1–0	4–2
2	Jorge Wilstermann	6	4	2	9	9	0	8	Qualified to the Semi-Finals	3–2	—	1–0	3–1
3	Barcelona	6	3	3	8	8	0	6		2–1	3–0	—	2–1
4	Técnico Universitário	6	1	5	11	15	−4	2		2–3	1–2	4–1	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Tiebreaker

Team 1	Score	Team 2
The Strongest	1–4	Jorge Wilstermann

Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	COB	SPC	UCH	TOR
1	Cobreloa	6	3	3	0	14	3	+11	9	Qualified to the Semi-Finals	—	6–1	1–0	6–1
2	Sporting Cristal	6	3	2	1	9	11	−2	8		0–0	—	3–2	2–1
3	Universidad de Chile	6	2	2	2	8	6	+2	6		0–0	1–1	—	3–0
4	Atlético Torino	6	0	1	5	5	16	−11	1		1–1	1–2	1–2	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Semi-finals

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	FLA	CAL	JOR
1	Flamengo	4	4	0	0	10	2	+8	8	Qualified to the Final	—	3–0	4–1
2	Deportivo Cali	4	1	1	2	2	5	−3	3		0–1	—	1–0
3	Jorge Wilstermann	4	0	1	3	3	8	−5	1		1–2	1–1	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

2 October 1981	Deportivo Cali	0–1	Flamengo	Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero, Cali
			Nunes 1'	Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Mário Lira

13 October 1981	Jorge Wilstermann	1–2	Flamengo	Estadio Félix Capriles, Cochabamba
	Melgar 53'		Baroninho 13' Adilio 64'	Referee: Enrique Labo

16 October 1981

Deportivo Cali

1–0

Jorge Wilstermann

Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero, Cali

23 October 1981	Flamengo	3–0	Deportivo Cali	Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
	Zico 9', 82' Chiquinho Carioca 57'			Attendance: 28,847 Referee: Juan Cardelino

27 October 1981

Jorge Wilstermann

1–1

Deportivo Cali

Estadio Félix Capriles, Cochabamba

30 October 1981	Flamengo	4–1	Jorge Wilstermann	Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
	Nunes 9' Adilio 39' Anselmo 87' Chiquinho Carioca 90'		Tarborga 2'	Attendance: 7,520 Referee: Jorge Orellana

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	COB	NAC	PEÑ
1	Cobreloa	4	3	1	0	9	5	+4	7	Qualified to the Final	—	2–2	4–2
2	Nacional	4	0	3	1	5	6	−1	3		1–2	—	1–1
3	Peñarol	4	0	2	2	4	7	−3	2		0–1	1–1	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

30 September 1981	Peñarol	1–1	Nacional	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
	Vargas 77'		de la Peña 44'

8 October 1981	Nacional	1–2	Cobreloa	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
	Morales 49'		Puebla 62' Olivera 83'

13 October 1981	Peñarol	0–1	Cobreloa	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
			Olivera 89'

21 October 1981	Nacional	1–1	Peñarol	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
	Espárrago 73'		Marcenaro 89'

28 October 1981	Cobreloa	4–2	Peñarol	Estadio Municipal, Calama
	Raúl Gómez 1' Víctor Merello 30'66' (P.K.) Oscar Muñoz 68'		Paz 70' (P.K.) Vargas 88'

4 November 1981	Cobreloa	2–2	Nacional	Estadio Municipal, Calama
	Oscar Muñoz 67' Luzardo 73' (o.g.)		Cabrera 39' Luzardo 90' (P.K.)

Finals

13 November 1981	Flamengo	2–1	Cobreloa	Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
	Zico 12', 30' (pen.)		Merello 65'	Attendance: 93,985 Referee: Esposito (Argentina)

20 November 1981	Cobreloa	1–0	Flamengo	Estadio Nacional, Santiago
	Merello 84'			Attendance: 61,721 Referee: Ramón Barreto (Uruguay)

23 November 1981	Flamengo	2–0 (4–2 agg.)	Cobreloa	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
	Zico 18', 84'			Attendance: 30,200 Referee: Roque Cerullo (Uruguay)

References

↑ Cuando Flamengo tocó el cielo con las manos on Olé, 14 Jul 2021
↑ RSSSF: Copa Libertadores 1981 at the RSSSF
↑ Flamengo campeón de la Libertadores 1981 on Clarín, 20 Nov 2019

External links

Ficha do Jogo - Matches Report

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Cuando Flamengo tocó el cielo con las manos on Olé, 14 Jul 2021

[2] RSSSF: Copa Libertadores 1981 at the RSSSF

[3] Flamengo campeón de la Libertadores 1981 on Clarín, 20 Nov 2019

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Copa Libertadores
Seasons	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Finals	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
History Finals Historical table Records and statistics Top scorers Winning managers Winning players Performance comparison Broadcasters Trophy Qualifying method in Argentina

1981 Copa Libertadores

Contents

Qualified teams

Draw

Group stage

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Tiebreaker

Group 5

Semi-finals

Group A

Group B

Finals

References

External links