In 1987, Cobreloa had new players and many of them would for the first time take part in an internaitonal tournament. The players left from the early 80's were just a few. With one of the early 80's cracks as the coach (Jorge Luis Siviero), Cobreloa almost reached the final.

In the first round, Cobreloa faced Colocolo and the Brazilians Sao Paulo and Guarani. The beginning made a lot people doubt about the capacity of this team, but clear victories over the Brazilians at home got Cobreloa the pass to the second round. The stadium had been renewed and was able to hold 30 thousand people, but none of the efforts was to enough to be one of the finalists.

Cobreloa started the semifinals spectacularly by defeating Barcelona (Ecuador) 3 - 0. The next game, against America de Cali (Colombia) was dramatic: Cobreloa was losing 2 - 0 and there were only 15 minutes left. Sergio Diaz and Juan Covaruubias made the imposible and sealed a tie.

The first game out was in Ecuador, and Cobreloa defeated Barcelona 2 - 0. But the game against America came and if Cobreloa resulted the winner, it would go onto the final. Letelier scored the first goal for Cobreloa, but the referee had many "strange" mistakes, including a penalty on Puebla that he did not see. Eventually, it was a 1 - 1 tie.

If the referee in Colombia was -to say the leeast- suspicious, the qualification of America was even more. They needed to beat Barcelona with a 4-goal difference and -incredibly- 4- 0 was the result of the game. That year could have been the revenge against Penarol, which in turn would win the chanpionship.