2025 Under-20 Intercontinental Cup
Football match
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The 2025 Under-20 Intercontinental Cup (Spanish: Sub-20 Intercontinental 2025) was the fourth edition of the UEFA–CONMEBOL Under-20 Intercontinental Cup, an annual one-off football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA between the winners of the U-20 Copa Libertadores and UEFA Youth League. As host confederation, CONMEBOL was in charge of the main organization of this edition.[1]
The match was played on 23 August 2025 at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between the Brazilian team Flamengo, the 2025 U-20 Copa Libertadores champions and the title holders having won the previous edition, and Spanish team Barcelona, the 2024–25 UEFA Youth League champions.[2][3]
Flamengo successfully defended their title after defeating Barcelona by a 6–5 on a penalty shoot-out.[4]
Background
Flamengo will be making its second consecutive appearance in the U-20 Intercontinental Cup, which it reached on 16 March 2025 when they were crowned two-time champions of the U-20 Copa Libertadores after beating fellow Brazilian side Palmeiras 3–2 on penalties following a 1–1 draw in the final of the 2025 edition.[5][6] Flamengo will be looking to defend the Under-20 Intercontinental title it won in the previous edition by defeating Greek side Olympiacos 2–1.[7][6]
On the other hand, Barcelona won their third UEFA Youth League title on 28 April 2025 with a 4–1 victory over Turkish side Trabzonspor in the final of the 2024–25 UEFA Youth League,[8] thus securing their participation in the 2025 U-20 Intercontinental Cup.[9] It will be the first appearance of a Spanish team in this competition.
Participating teams
| Team | Qualification | Previous participations (bold indicates winners) |
|---|---|---|
 Flamengo |
2025 U-20 Copa Libertadores champions | 1 (2024) |
 Barcelona |
2024–25 UEFA Youth League champions | None |
Pre-match
Officials
The officiating team will be appointed by the CONMEBOL Referee Commission; only referees in the FIFA International Referees List will be eligible.[1] On 19 August 2025, CONMEBOL announced the refereeing team with Colombian official Jhon Ospina as the referee for the match.[10] Ospina is a FIFA referee since 2019.[11] He was joined by his fellow Colombians Richard Ortiz and David Fuentes as assistant referees and Mary Blanco as the fifth official, while Peruvian Roberto Pérez was the fourth official. Augusto Menéndez acted as the video assistant referee (VAR) and Milagros Arruela was the assistant VAR official (AVAR), both also from Peru.
Squads
Each team had to submit their list of 23 players (including at least three goalkeepers) to its respective confederation by 18 August 2025, 19:00 UTC−3 (BRT) or 24:00 UTC+2 (CEST), as appropriate. Only players born on or after 1 January 2005 were eligible to compete. Teams were permitted to make player replacements in cases of serious injuries up to 24 hours prior the start of the match, provided that it was approved by the CONMEBOL Chief Medical Officer and the team doctor concerned.[1]
Barcelona announced their squad on 18 August and was unable to count on Dro Fernández, Toni Fernández, Guille Fernández and Jofre Torrents at the express request of first-team coach Hansi Flick.[12] Flamengo announced their squad on 19 August with 13 players remaining from the team that competed in the previous edition with the only absence of Wallace Yan, requested by coach Filipe Luís to stay with the first-team.[13]
Match
Details
          Flamengo
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    Barcelona
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Assistant referees:[10]
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Match rules:[1]
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Notes
- Each team was given only three opportunities to make substitutions, excluding substitutions made at half-time.