Freed and unbeaten: 14 years since Corinthians’ triumph | OneFootball

This Saturday, July 4, Corinthians celebrated the 14th anniversary of its historic first Conmebol Copa Libertadores title. That year, the team led by Adenor Bacchi, Tite, defeated Argentina’s Boca Jrs 3-1 on aggregate. In 14 matches, they recorded eight wins and six draws, scoring 21 goals and conceding only four.

In the first leg, at La Bombonera in Buenos Aires, Corinthians fell behind, and in the 40th minute of the second half, Romarinho, who had just come on, received a pass from Emerson Sheik and delicately chipped it over goalkeeper Agustín Orión. In the second leg, the standout figure was none other than Emerson Sheik himself, who scored the goals in Corinthians’ 2-0 victory at the Pacaembu, packed with 40,000 fans.

Photo: Daniel Augusto Jr/Agência Corinthians

That day, Timão started the match with the following lineup: Cássio; Alessandro, Chicão, Leandro Castán and Fábio Santos; Ralf, Paulinho, Danilo and Alex (Douglas); Jorge Henrique (Wallace) and Emerson Sheik (Liédson). The bench options were: Danilo Fernandes, Júlio César, Wallace, Marquinhos, Welder, Douglas, Luís Ramírez, Liédson and Gilsinho.

Sheik’s first goal came eight minutes into the second half. After an Alex free kick, Jorge Henrique subtly flicked the ball backward with his head. After a scramble inside the box, Danilo cleverly backheeled it for Timão’s number 11 to fire into the net and open the scoring. In the 27th minute, Emerson Sheik once again intercepted an attempted pass from defender Schiavi, left two players in the dust, and finished into the corner past the goalkeeper to seal the title for Coringão!

At the end of that year, the club from Parque São Jorge traveled to Japan and won the second world title in its history by defeating Egypt’s Al-Ahly and England’s Chelsea, both by 1-0 scorelines, with goals from striker Paolo Guerrero.

2012 Libertadores campaign

Before beating Boca in the final, Timão topped Group 6 in the opening stage with 14 points, defeating Nacional-PAR twice (2-0 and 3-1), Deportivo Táchira-VEN (6-0), and Cruz Azul-MEX (1-0), while drawing two matches: Deportivo Táchira (1-1) and Cruz Azul (0-0). In the round of 16, they knocked out Emelec-EQU (0-0 away and 3-0 at home). In the quarterfinals, they got past Vasco da Gama (0-0 away and 1-0 at home). In the semifinals, they eliminated the then-defending champions Santos FC, featuring Neymar Jr and company (1-0 away and 1-1 at home).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.