Estudiantes Nearly Lost Home Advantage Against Flamengo — Here Is How They Kept It
Estudiantes de La Plata's own stadium nearly wasn't allowed to host their Copa Libertadores semifinal against Flamengo, over a ticket-capacity rule that had nothing to do with the result on the pitch. The club found a way to keep home advantage — at a real cost to its own fans. Here is what happened, and who both sides will be missing when the first leg kicks off October 15.
The Away-Fan Capacity Problem
CONMEBOL's regulations for the semifinal stage require the home club to set aside a minimum of 4,000 tickets for visiting supporters. Estudiantes' traditional away section at Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi (commercially known as Estadio UNO) only holds between 2,000 and 2,500 people — short of the requirement, and putting the club's home advantage for the biggest match in years in real doubt.
How Estudiantes Resolved It
Rather than relocate the match, Estudiantes reached an agreement with Flamengo and reassigned a different stand — a section behind one of the goals, usually reserved for the club's own supporters, with a capacity of around 6,000 — to accommodate the visiting fans, releasing 4,000 of those seats to Flamengo. It keeps the tie at Estudiantes' own ground, but it genuinely shrinks the space available to the club's own crowd for the biggest home game in years — a real cost local fans are not happy about.
Who Is Missing for Each Side
Flamengo will be without Giorgian De Arrascaeta, who fractured his wrist playing a friendly for Uruguay and is ruled out of both legs, plus Ayrton Lucas (grade-2 thigh muscle injury, four-to-six-week recovery) and Gonzalo Plata (thigh injury, pulled from his national team to recover at the club) — both in real doubt for the series.
Estudiantes will be missing Gabriel Neves to a wrist fracture suffered in the Supercopa Internacional, while Tomás Palacios and Leandro González Pírez are suspended for the first leg after accumulating yellow cards. Jalil Elías and Guido Carrillo are both carrying knocks and are doubtful.
Full Schedule
First leg: Thursday, October 15, 21:30, Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi, La Plata. Second leg: Thursday, October 22, 21:30, at the Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro.