After the euphoria of their surprise victory in South America’s equivalent of the Champions League, the coach, players and fans of Liga Deportiva Universitaria (LDU) have sent a defiant message to their European counterparts Manchester United.

The Ecuadorians are sure that after defeating the champions of Africa, Asia and Oceania in the next World Club Championship, they will wrap up another spectacular campaign by cruising over the 2008 European champions in the final.

“We beat Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro - now we want to destroy Manchester United,” one LDU fan told a local TV crew during the memorable Copa Libertadores celebrations in Quito. “We danced the samba in Brazil. Manchester United will be easy, bring them on!” said another a he danced on the street.

These remarks were reinforced by LDU coach Edgardo Bauza when the team arrived back at Quito airport.’’ The players will remain united until they win the World Club Championship,” said the team’s Argentinian boss. Bauza urged LDU´s management not to dismantle the team, but his call seems to have been ignored since already Jofre ‘Dinamita’ Guerron has been transferred to Spanish club Getafe.

LDU have many more promising young players in their squad such as Franklin Salas, a regular member of Ecuador´s national team and Claudio Bieler, an Argentinian who is also leading goalscorer in the Ecuadorian league.

And just what is the background of this relatively unknown South American club? In a continent where Brazilian and Argentinian teams have always monopolised football success, LDU only began making headlines in the early years of the millennium. Even so, the club was formed back in 1930 by students of the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Quito, the country’s most important university. Due to the club’sorigins, the team were nicknamed ‘The Doctors’ or the ‘Whites’ due to the colour of their strip.

LDU have won nine national championships but the victory over Fluminense at the famous Maracana Stadium is definitely the most important achievement in their history. Ironically, in the first round of this year’s Libertadores Cup, LDU were drawn in the same group as Fluminense, along with Libertadof Paraguay and Arsenal of Argentina.

In the first match in Quito, Fluminense held LDU to a goalless draw. Then the Ecuadorians beat Libertad 2-0, also at home, before scoring an important 1-0 victory in Argentina over Arsenal followed by a 6-1 thrashing of the same club in Quito.

LDU’s last two matches ended in defeats - 3-1 to Libertad in Paraguay and 1-0 to Fluminense, but even so they qualified for the next round with a second place in Group 8.

After disposing of another of South America’s top clubs, Estudiantes, LDU faced San Lorenzo, another Argentinian team, in the quarter finals and after two 1-1 draws they advanced after a 5-3  penalty shootout victory in Buenos Aires.

In the semi-final against America of Mexico, a 0-0 draw in Quito and a 1-1 draw in Mexico City, saw LDU advance to the final due to the away-goal rule. They went on to beat Fluminense 4-2 in the first match of the final, followed by an historic 4-1 penalty shootout win at the Maracana.