Copa Libertadores final: Botafogo’s final against the evil spirits

The club of Garrincha and Mario Zagallo, the favorite child of the Brazilian bohemians, is the only major club in Sugarloaf that has never won the Copa Libertadores. A success against Atlético Mineiro should defeat the curse – a holding company will take care of the future.

No matter how much crisis it may be in, hardly anything has a more seductive sound than Brazil’s soccer. This is not just because his protagonists know how to caress the ball like one samba his four-stringed cavaquinho. At Botafogo Futebol e Regatas, one of the four big clubs in Rio de Janeiro, this is also due to the votes of women. The voice of Beth Carvalho, for example, whose death at Botafogo was mourned not with a minute of silence but with a minute of samba, or that of Anitta, who passes as a queen of Latino pop of the 21st century. Anitta will be present this Saturday when Botafogo tries to defeat a stigma in Buenos Aires: If the dream of the first Copa Libertadores victory in the club’s history becomes reality in the final against Atlético Mineiro (9 p.m., Sport1+), Botafogo would stop, to be the only major club at Sugarloaf without this South American crown.