Summary Period 2011-2020

In 2011, the team did not start badly, having Gustavo Benitez as coach, in the Apertura Tournament, Palestino finished 4th in the standings, qualifying to the championship playoffs, being eliminated by O’Higgins. Case totally opposite in the Clausura Tournament, finishing in the 15th position of league position table.

In 2012 Uruguayan Daniel Carreño was hired as coach, bringing several players from that same country to the team. The result was disappointing, as it got the team to finish in 15th place in the standings. For the second semester, Emiliano Astorga was hired as coach, having more than acceptable results, as the team finished in 3rd place in the Clausura Tournament that same year.

In the Apertura Tournament of 2013, Palestino had a good performance finishing 5th on the league, qualifying for the pre-Copa Libertadores 2014 playoffs. In that playoffs, it was eliminated by Universidad de Chile. In contrast, the Transition tournament of the same year just was regular: finished in 11th place.

In early 2014, the Club Deportivo Palestino leadership decides to present the map of Historical Palestine replacing the ‘1’ numbers behind the T-shirt. The Jewish community of Chile and Zionist lobbyists denounced the fact as if they were “denying Israel’s right to exist”. All this campaign against the shirt had a positive impact on the popularity of the team, since on the one hand became better known and said T-shirt began to be bought massively outside of Chile.

The Clausura Tournament of 2014 was a good one having Emiliano Astorga as coach, since the equipment finished 4th in the regular phase, but at the same time was a great disappointment for the fans, since it classified the Copa Sudamericana 2015 qualification playoffs, but lost in round-robin matches against Cobresal (visiting loses 0-2 and local wins 2-1), in very affordable matches.

In mid-2014, the argentinian coach Pablo Guede came to the team, and it causes a whole revolution in the team’s game, and capitalizing on the mystique of what Club Deportivo Palestino meant for the fanatics who support it from Palestine and the Middle East in general. This improvement of the team was fueled by a golden generation of youth players who had already been champions in the U-19 series of 2012. So much so that of the 7 new players brought by Pablo Guede, only 2 of them were starting lineup ones. In the same Clausura Tournament 2014, the team finished 4th, qualifying to the pre-Copa Libertadores 2015 playoffs.

That playoffs was won by Club Deportivo Palestino overwhelming Santiago Wanderers on the final matches (3-1 local and 6-1 visit), qualifying for pre-Copa Libertadores after 36 years. This meant that he had to play a round-robin match in order to enter the group stage of the Copa Libertadores 2015. Also this year he could have qualified the Copa Sudamericana 2015 as he reached the final of the Copa Chile 2014, fact that would have been unprecedented to be classified to 2 international tournaments the same year, but unfortunately the team lost against Universidad de Conception 3-2 on Estadio Fiscal of Talca.

In its participation of the previous phase of the Copa Libertadores 2015, the team eliminates National of Uruguay, winning 1-0 in Santiago, and losing 2-1 in Montevideo. This allows them to qualify for the group stage with Deportivo Zamora (Venezuela), Montevideo Wanderers (Uruguay) and Boca Juniors (Argentina). In this group stage, the team struggled until the last date but could not defeat to Montevideo Wanderers in Santiago, which motivated that it did not qualify to the following round.

Anyway, Pablo Guede’s great campaign in the Apertura 2015 Tournament (it finishes 4th in the regular stage), allowing it to qualify for the Pre-Copa Sudamericana 2015 playoffs, losing on the final against Universidad Católica in round-trip matches (the team won 2-1 in the home leg but it lost 4-1 on the visiting lap). Also in this tournament, Marcos Riquelme remains as the top scorer with 11 goals.

Anyway, Palestino will be able to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana 2016, having Nicolás Córdova as coach, since at the end of the Clausura Tournament 2016, finishing in 4th place, he qualified as ‘Chile 3’, that is to say the team that obtained The highest score in the General Table accumulated in the seasons 2015-16, and that was not already classified to another international cup.

The Club Deportivo Palestino campaign in the Copa Sudamericana 2016 was spectacular: it eliminated Libertad of Paraguay in the first round (1-0 in the home leg and with a surprising 3-0 victory as visit), also eliminated Real Garcilaso of Peru, tying 2-2 as visit in Cusco and winning 1-0 in Santiago. In the round of 16 it came the best international performance of the 2016 team: they eliminate the powerful team Flamengo of Brazil (losing 1-0 in the home leg, but winning 2-1 as visit), with an outstanding performance of Leonardo Valencia. In the quarter-finals they would face San Lorenzo de Almagro (Argentina), being eliminated (losing 2-0 in Argentina and winning 1-0 in Santiago) but with an excellent participation in international tournaments.

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