More than 20 years later, the club achieved an historic season with Luis Santibáñez as coach, who qualified to O'Higgins to the 1980 Copa Libertadores' semi-finals. However, the team was eliminated, by the Club Nacional de Football|Club Nacional of Uruguay, with goals of Eduardo de la Peña and Waldemar Victorino, being defeated at the Estadio Parque Central for 2–0, failing of this form to play against Internacional de Porto Alegre in the finals. In the early 1990s, the club's board signed to the coach Manuel Pellegrini for face the 1992 Copa Conmebol, in where unfortunately was immediately eliminated by Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata of Argentina. Then, with a prior spell of Nelson Acosta, who potentiated players like Jaime Riveros for example, in 1994, the club achieved the finals of Copa Chile, being runner–up under Roberto Hernández as coach.