Category World News

Who: Flamengo and Palmeiras
What: Copa Libertadores final
Where: Monumental Stadium, Lima in Peru
When: Saturday, November 29 at 4pm (21:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 18:00 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.

A team from Brazil will win the Copa Libertadores for the eighth time in the last nine years on Saturday, continuing the recent Brazilian dominance.

With only two games left in Brazil’s Serie A season, Flamengo leads Palmeiras by five points after finishing second and third behind Botafogo.

In the interim, the continent’s biggest prize is up for grabs in Lima, Peru’s capital, and perhaps along with it, the title of best-ever winner, regardless of who wins the domestic competition.

The final between two of the biggest clubs in the world outside of European football takes place on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera Sport.

Who are the current holders of the Copa Libertadores?

Botafogo won the Copa Libertadores trophy and did the double in the previous season with Brazil’s Serie A title.

In the match that was held in Buenos Aires, Botafogo defeated Atletico Mineiro 3-1, sealing their first title defense.

How did Palmeiras win the Copa Libertadores championship match?

In the Copa Libertadores semifinals, Raphael Veiga scored twice, and Palmeiras overcame a 3-0 first-leg deficit with a 4-0 victory over Liga Deportiva of Ecuador.

Following Ramon Sosa and Bruno Fuchs’ first-half goals, Veiga added two more goals in the 68th and 82nd minutes.

Abel Ferreira’s team defeated Argentina’s River Plate in the quarterfinals while winning all six of their group stage matches.

How did Flamengo triumph in the Copa Libertadores championship match?

After drawing 0-0 with Racing Club from Argentina in the second leg of their semifinal match, Flamengo advanced to the Copa Libertadores final.

Despite playing the majority of the second half with 10 men after Gonzalo Plata was sent off in the 56th minute, the Brazilian side managed to hold on to the 1-0 lead in the first leg&nbsp.

With three victories and one defeat from six games, Flamengo needed penalties to defeat Argentina’s Estudiantes in the quarterfinals.

What is Palmeiras’ Copa Libertadores record?

The Palmerias have won three straight titles, with 1999 as their first. Their third title came the following year when they defeated Flamengo in the final, and it was there in 2020.

What is Flamengo’s Copa Libertadores record?

After winning the previous four tournaments in 1981, 2019, and 2022, Flamengo will also aim to win the prestigious South American competition for the fourth time.

How prevalent is Brazil in the Copa Libertadores?

Brazilian sides will compete for the eighth title in the previous nine competitions.

Brazilian teams have won two Copa Libertadores titles since 2019 combined, with the final two winners coming on Saturday.

What transpired prior to Palmeiras’ participation in Flamengo?

In October, Flamengo defeated their closest rivals to the Brazilian Serie A title with a 3-2 victory. In what appears to be the first of a crucial league double as the domestic season comes to an end, they also won 2-0 at Palmeiras earlier in the campaign.

Is the Copa Libertadores final likely to be a source of controversy?

As Flamengo’s squad prepared to face Palmeiras in Peru on Wednesday, Rio de Janeiro police officers and football fans clashed near the city’s international airport.

As thousands of people cheered outside, about a dozen fans reportedly climbed out of the Flamengo bus from the ceiling. In the altercations, footage showed officials yelling and rubber bullets at the opponents, with some fans retaliating.

Saul Niguez, the midfielder for Flamengo, shared a joke about the incident on his social media accounts, which showed a top-level fan entering the bus.

The former Atletico Madrid player wrote, “We have some new signings.”

The incident was not covered by the Brazilian club. Additionally, authorities refused to comment on arrests or injuries.

Head-to-head

With Palmeiras taking home the spoils on 15 occasions, Flamengo claims 16 victories in their 48th meeting, making it their eighth.

News from the Palmeiras team

Figueiredo has a cruciate ligament injury that he sustained in March.

Former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho is ruled out due to a shin injury, while Lucas Evangelista is experiencing a thigh issue.

The goalkeeper’s return hasn’t completely been ruled out since his recent return to light training, but his fractured hand leaves him in a much-needed predicament.

news from the Flamengo team

Following his red card in the semifinal against Racing Club, Gonzalo Plata is suspended. Due to a thigh injury, Pedro misses out.

Henrique is preparing to start after making a late equalizer against Atletico Mineiro in the most recent league game.

Palmeiras had a starting lineup in mind.

Lomba, Khellven, Gomez, Cerqueira, Piquerez, Allan, Moreno, Pereira, Lopez, Anderson, Roque, and Khellven

Flamengo had a starting lineup in mind.

In an apparent attempt to refute perceptions that Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro is a slave to the US military, which has received a $ 50 million US bounty for his arrest, he posted a video of himself driving through the city’s streets.

For the fifth week in a row since Russia’s concerted offensive began to take its eastern city, Ukraine has waged a fierce defense of Pokrovsk while trying to finesse a US peace plan that has been heavily criticized by US lawmakers.

The Gornyak and Shakhtersky microdistricts in Pokrovsk have been completely liberated, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday.

It announced on Tuesday that fighting was taking place in the Myrnohrad district of Vostochny and Zapadny east of Pokrovsk.

Both cities are located in a box that the Russian forces have gradually tried to shut down in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Russia claims to have effective fire control over those supply routes, and supplies and reinforcements can only currently reach Ukrainian forces from the west.

Officials from Ukraine continued that the battle for Pokrovsk’s defense was still ongoing. According to Ukraine’s head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, who cited the 7th Air Assault Brigade fighting there on Sunday, “our positions are held in the center of Pokrovsk, shooting battles continue, and the enemy fails to consolidate.”

The Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad enclave has clearly seen a strain in its resources, but the presence of Russian offensive forces has not diminished their ability to attack elsewhere.

Russia claimed to have seize Petropavlovka in Donetsk, Tikhoye and Otradnoye in Dniperopetrovsk, Novoye Zaporozhiye and Zatishye in Zaporizhia, and Petropavlovka in Kharkiv, Novoselivka, Maslyakovka, Yampol, Stavki, Zvanovka, Petrovskoye, Ivan

About a half-dozen villages have been attacked each week by the Russian forces.

However, some of Russia’s assertions are disputed by Ukraine.

Russian General Staff Sergei Gerasimov announced on November 20 that his forces were setting up Ukrainian units on the left bank of the Oskil River to seize the city of Kupiansk in the northern Kharkiv region of Ukraine.

However, Kovalenko responded, “Russia did NOT occupy Kupiansk,” in a response to her on Telegram. “Gerasimov is just a liar,” he claimed a week later.

According to its commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine has also had successes on the ground. The Defense Forces of Ukraine were able to carry out counteroffensive operations in the Dobropillia direction from the end of August to the end of October this year, he claimed, referring to a failed Russian flanking manoeuvre in a town to the northwest of Pokrovsk.

The units then liberated more than 430 square kilometers [166 square miles] of north of Pokrovsk, breaking up the enemy’s offensive group. More than 13, 000 people were killed and hurt in Russia.

In addition to putting more pressure on Ukraine’s rear, Russia also launched 1, 169 drones and 25 missiles into its cities between November 20 and November 26. Zelenskyy demanded more short- and medium-range defenses after Ukraine successfully destroyed 14 of the drones and 14 of the missiles.

Disputed diplomacy

A 28-point peace plan presented by Donald Trump’s administration last week has been criticized as too Russia-friendly by members of the US Congress, including Europe, Ukraine, and members of the US Congress.

The original plan provided crucial details that Russia had demanded. That included the Ukraine’s promise to never join NATO and the force’s surrender of nearly all of Donetsk’s unoccupied territory. The other Western allies of the US and Ukraine would have to accept that those annexations were legal.

Within 100 days of the plan’s signature, Russia appears to believe that Zelenskyy would win. However, Ukraine would have to hold an election.

Additionally, Russia has urged Ukraine to effectively disarm. The plan’s goal is to reduce its military by about a third, to 600,000, according to the 28-point plan.

After seeing the plan, Zelenenskyy told the Ukrainian people that “right now is one of our history’s most difficult times,” and that he had to choose between the loss of our dignity and the threat of losing a key partner.

Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated in a statement that “I am very skeptical that this so-called “peace plan” will bring about peace.

It would be helpful to know for sure who the plan’s author and the location were, according to Polish Premier Donald Tusk, who was polite about it on social media.

According to the Reuters news agency, the plan heavily benefited from a Russian non-paper that the White House received in October.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that “Trump’s 28-point plan, which we have,” includes the important agreements reached at the summit in Alaska.

Yury Ushakov, a senior Putin aide, told the TASS Russian state news agency, “I would say not all, but many of the provisions of this plan, they seem to us to be acceptable.”

A Ukrainian delegation led by former defense minister Rustem Umerov met with US negotiators in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the draft document, which was being drafted by the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

Europe ruled out allowing territorial disputes brought on by aggression, and suggested that territorial negotiations must begin at the Ukrainian border without having to give prior consent. Additionally, it suggested that Ukraine should keep a sizable army of 800,000 people under its belt and receive a reliable NATO security guarantee.

Their final decisions will be made by Trump and Zelenskyy, according to their joint statement released on Monday, which stated simply that they would “continue intensive work.”

Zelenskyy claimed that a significant amount of work had been done to turn the original 28 points into a workable agreement. He cryptically described the work that remained as “very challenging” and said that the list of necessary steps to end the war could now become realizable.

Trump and Zelenskyy have been pushed by Ukraine to have a meeting before December, but on Tuesday, Bloomberg released transcripts of a phone conversation between Trump confidant Steve Witkoff and Yury Ushakov, in which Witkoff advised Ushakov to call him before Zelenskyy had a chance to meet him. Putin should flatter Trump as a peacemaker to influence his decision-making and work with him directly to create the peace plan, according to Wittkoff.

Following that leak, Witkoff was forced to travel to Moscow the following week to meet with Russian officials to discuss the revised plan. After reviewing the original 28-point plan, General Kellogg resigned as mediator for Ukraine, which was confirmed by the White House.

It is obvious that Witkoff is completely in favor of Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian-paid agent be more modest in his efforts? Republican Congressman Don Bacon wrote about it on social media.

It is obvious that Witkoff is completely in favor of the Russians for those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine emerge as a sovereign and democratic nation. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian-paid agent be more modest in his efforts? He ought to be fired. https://t.co/dxMsda0YV5

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, made his first significant comments on the peace proposal in Bishkek, Kyrgystan on Thursday, saying that signing documents with the Ukrainian leadership is pointless “because Zelenskyyy had outlived his mandate.”

According to him, “I think the Ukrainian authorities made a fundamental and strategic error when they gave in to the fear of voting in the presidential elections in the spring of 2025,” Zelenskyy’s four-year term was up.

Zelenskyy was elected in 2019, and under the terms of the constitution’s “national emergency,” Zelenskyy has twice been elected.

The 28 points, according to Putin, are “a set of questions that were suggested for discussion and final wording,” and do not constitute a peace treaty.

We generally concur that this could serve as the foundation for upcoming agreements, Puntin said.