South American’s biggest club competition restarts on Tuesday with the Copa Libertadoers group stage kicking off.
Argentina will be represented by five clubs in this year’s competition. Tigre, River Plate, Racing Club, Defensa y Justicia and Boca Juniors will look to bring the trophy back to Argentina. Last year’s finalists River Plate will try to make it to yet another final. Here are the groups for this year:
Group A:
Flamengo
Independiente del Valle
Junior
Barcelona
Group B:
Palmeiras
Bolivar
Tigre
Guarani
Group C:
Penarol
Colo-Colo
Athletico Paranaense
Jorge Wilstermann
Group D:
River Plate
Sao Paulo
LDU Quito
Binacional
Group E:
Gremio
Universidad Catolica
America de Cali
Internacional
Group F:
Nacional
Racing
Alianza Lima
Estudiantes de Merida
Group G:
Olimpia
Santos
Delfín
Defensa y Justicia
Group H:
Boca Juniors
Libertad
Caracas
Independiente Medellin
Here are the matches involving the Argentine clubs this week:
Tuesday, March 3:
Defensa y Justicia vs. Santos
Tuesday, March 3:
Caracas vs. Boca Juniors
Wednesday, March 4:
Tigre vs. Palmeiras
Wednesday, March 4:
LDU Quito vs. River Plate
Thursday, March 5:
Estudiantes de Merida vs. Racing Club
This system of qualification to CL is for Argentina clubs unfavourable. In Argentina things are fluctuating and changing quickly. The clubs that are top ones in one season are participating in CL edition -not the nearest one however but the next one. Hence it’s clear currently Defensa or Tigre are much weaker clubs now than they were almost 2 seasons ago when Defensa was runner up while Tigre Copa Argentina winner.
For example Velez, Lanus or San Lorenzo would be much stronger teams in this edition.