Independiente won Libertadores Cup in may 1972. The club is interesting in several respects: they were not well known in Europe, yet, they already won two Libertadores Cups – in 1964 and 1965. Their third cup was contested by Universitario (Lima, Peru), a team featuring some Peruvian national players from World Cup 1970 (Ballesteros, Rojas, and Ramirez) but only one star – Chumpitaz. Since no club from Peru was ever among the grands of South American football, the success was more or less on the wings of the good World Cup peformance: more carried on enthusiasm than real strength. It is next to impossible to say how good Universitario were, but certainly they gave headache to Independiente:

Final (May 17 & 24)Universitario Per Independiente Arg 0-0 1-2 1-2 1st leg. Estadio Nacional, Lima, 17- 5-1972Universitario - Independiente 0-0

Universitario: Ballesteros, Soría, Cuellar, Chumpítaz, Luna, Techera,Carbonell (Uribe), Castañeda, Ramírez, Rojas, Bailetti.

Independiente: Santoro, Commisso, Sá, Garisto, Pavoni, Pastoriza,Raimondo,Semenewicz, Balbuena, Mircoli, Saggioratto (Bulla).

Referee: Marques (Brazil)Attendance: 45,000

2nd leg. Cordero, Avellaneda, 25- 5-1972 Independiente - Universitario 2-1 6' Maglioni 1-061' Maglioni 2-079' Rojas 2-1

Independiente: Santoro, Commisso, Sá, Garisto, Pavoni, Pastoriza, Raimondo, Semenewicz, Balbuena, Maglioni, Saggioratto (Mircoli).

Universitario: Ballesteros, Soría, Cuellar, Chumpítaz, Luna, Techera(Alva), Cruzado, Castañeda, Munante, Rojas, Ramírez (Bailetti).

Referee: Favilli Neto (Brazil)Attendance: 55,000

Third time winners of Libertadores

(Thanks to Igor Nedbaylo for the photo!):