How an 8th place team managed to win the copa is beyond me.
They sacrificed games in the league to rest players for the Libertadores. Almost every team does it.
It’s pretty common for the teams who go further into the Libertadores to sacrifice the Brazilian League since our calendar is insane and most teams don’t have enough players to keep the same level on both competitions. Palmeiras in 2021 finished 7th for example and Flamengo last year finished 20 points behind the winner
Brazilian teams that go far in the Cups end up playing around 70 games or even more.
Brazil is also a really big country and most clubs can’t afford to have a big squad filled with quality players so they end up focusing in one competition when they aren’t close to winning the league title.
