Nacional against Peñarol, the Clásico of Uruguay, was played last Wednesday.
The legendary Estadio Centenario in Montevideo was the perfect stage as usual for the match. It wasn't just a clash between the two rivals, but it was also a tie-breaker to determine who will win the Clausura.
It was a tense match, but two goals by Gonzalo “Chory” Castro and Guzmán Corujo led Nacional to a 2-0 win. Unlike in other South American leagues, where there are two champions in a season, in Uruguay there is a single championship title. It will be decided by one of the weirdest championship playoffs you have ever seen, probably because Nacional and Peñarol will play at least one more time before any of them will win the title.
Until 2002, the championship was decided by a match between the Apertura and the Clausura winners. That changed in 2003 when a two-stage championship playoff replaced the final. Alongside the Apertura and Clausura winners, another team joined the playoffs – the winner of the aggregate table.
The first stage is simple: a semifinal between the Apertura and Clausura winners. Peñarol won the Apertura and clinched their spot in the playoffs at an early stage. The problem was in the Clausura when both Peñarol and Nacional were tied in points for first place. In order to decide who will qualify for the playoffs, a tie-breaker match was played. That is the match that was already mentioned, and Nacional has won it.
Things are getting more complicated when we are talking about the final. The winner of the semifinal will play against the third team, the winner of the aggregate table. However, this team is actually Nacional. It means that no matter what the result of the semifinal will be, Nacional will play in the final. In this stage, it might sound weird, so here is an explanation of every scenario.
If Nacional defeats Peñarol in the semifinal, the final will be canceled, as Nacional cannot play against themselves. In this case, Nacional will win the title. This situation is not rare. In 2018, Peñarol has defeated Nacional in the semifinal and won the title without playing the final, as they were also the aggregate table winners.
The other scenario will be a Peñarol win in the semifinal. Peñarol will qualify for the finals and will play against Nacional again. Now it will be a single match for the title, and the winners will be the champions. This situation has also happened in the past. In the 2014 playoffs, Danubio has defeated Santiago Wanderers in the semifinals. Later, both teams have met once again in a two-legged final.
In the upcoming weeks, the matches between Nacional and Peñarol wouldn’t be only for the city's glory or for the domestic title, but they will also demonstrate a bizarre format that every result can change the clubs' destiny and the amount of games they will play. This series of matches feels like a never-ending saga. How long it will take to crown a champion this time around?