Estudiantes de La Plata will debut this Wednesday in the Copa Libertadores, South America's most important club tournament. The team will face Deportivo Independiente Medellín of Colombia in the first match of Group A. The game, scheduled for 21:00 local time, will be held at the Atanasio Girardot Stadium. It will be broadcast live by Agencia Noticias Argentina and can be watched on Fox Sports and Disney+ Premium. The appointed referee is Venezuelan Alexis Herrera, while his compatriot Angel Arteaga will be in charge of the VAR. Estudiantes enters this match in a great sporting moment, having recently won the 2025 Torneo Clausura to become Argentine champions. They also had a strong start to the 2026 Torneo Apertura, sitting second in Zone A, and thrashed Ituzaingó in the Round of 32 of the Copa Argentina. 'Pincha,' who have won the Copa Libertadores four times (1968, 1969, 1970, and 2009), will be looking to avenge their last defeat, where they lost on penalties in the quarter-finals to Brazilian side Flamengo, who went on to win the tournament. Deportivo Independiente Medellín, for its part, is going through a poor spell in the Colombian league, sitting in fourteenth place after 15 rounds. However, the Colombian runner-up reached the group stage by eliminating Liverpool and Juventud Las Piedras, both from Uruguay, in the previous rounds. 'Deportivo Independiente Medellín': Salvador Ichazo; Leyser Chaverra, Daniel Londoño, José Ortiz; Hayen Palacios, Baldomero Perlaza, Halam Lobos, Diego Moreno, Frank Fabra; Francisco Fydriszewski and John Montaño. DT: Alejandro Restrepo. 'Estudiantes (LP)': Fernando Muslera; Eric Meza, Leandro González Pírez, Tomás Palacios, Gastón Benedetti; Mikel Amondarain, Ezequiel Piovi, Alexis Castro; Tiago Palacios, Guido Carrillo and Facundo Farías or Edwuin Cetré. DT: Alexander Medina.
