Copa Libertadores Final 2011, Santos Vs. Peñarol: Final Score, Neymar And Ganso Lead Santos To Victory

After a first half spent barely missing the net, Santos finally found the target in the second half and pulled away from Peñarol to claim the 2011 Copa Libertadores title. 19-year old Brazilian wunderkind Neymar scored a brilliant goal and Danilo netted a second, equally beautiful strike to give the Brazilian side their third Copa Libertadores title.

Neymar’s goal came only two minutes after the second half kicked off. After a lightning fast build-up through the midfielder, culminating with a great pass from Arouca to Neymar out on left. Neymar made a quick move inside and buried a perfectly placed shot past Peñaro’s keeper. Santos kept up the pressure and made it 2-0 thanks to another pinpoint shot from just inside the box by the defender Danilo.

With the lead staked, Santos fans began to get louder and dared to begin celebrating but Peñarol wasn’t done yet. They were lucky to get away with a couple aggressive tackles but settled and began attacking the Santos goal. After some sustained pressure, they finally found the net in the 80th minute thanks to an own goal from Durval. Just minutes later, Paulo Henrique Ganso shockingly missed an open net that fortunately didn’t come back to hurt Santos.

Despite Peñarol unloading everything and the kitchen sink at Santos for the final 10 minute, they were unable to get the needed second goal and Santos fans celebrated as their club lifted the trophy.

The match was marred after the final whistle by several pitch invaders that angered the Peñarol players and set off a large brawl that lasted for several minutes and had to be subdued by police. After several different fights broke out, Peñarol players finally were ushered off the pitch and things calmed down. No matter what happened to set off Peñarol it wasn’t exactly a losing with class.