If there's one player who knows the Copa Libertadores well, it's Antony Silva. The 39-year-old goalkeeper has participated in the continental tournament with five different teams, and in this edition, he will do so with Club Nacional de Paraguay, under the highest demands, as required by a tournament of this magnitude.

"It will always be a competitive and very historic tournament in South America. Nowadays, every day it is prepared much more than before, the level has improved a lot. Participating today is very important both in sports and economically for the clubs. I think most of them make a great effort to sustain their squads and improve them for this competition," he said in an interview for Bein Sports.

The first match that the 'Tricolor' will play in the 2024 Libertadores will be against Aucas from Ecuador, a result that Silva and company will seek to take home. Despite recognizing it will be a tough match, he trusts in the performance they will have this Thursday.

"For us, going to achieve a good result means not losing, obviously trying to win it, we have the aspirations to do so, but we have to play it, be smart, it's a complex match, an opponent in restructuring, with atypical situations for us," he declared.

"One prepares oneself, I believe we can have a good match and get a good result. Nacional is a team that knows how to play these instances, it was a finalist in the Copa Libertadores in recent years, it is a team that knows where it stands, and wherever it goes to play, it knows the demand," he explained.

In this way, 'La Academia' will do everything possible to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores again, just as they did 10 years ago when they finished as runners-up in the tournament.