The 2011 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2011 Copa

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd edition of the

Copa Libertadores de América The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

's premier international club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament organized by

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

. It was held from January 25 to June 22 of the same year. Brazilian club

Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the Brazilian league, as well as in Campeonat ...

were the defending champion, but they were eliminated by Uruguayan team

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...

in the round of 16. Internacional was succeeded by Brazilian club Santos, who won their third title after defeating Peñarol in the two-legged finals. Santos qualified to the

2011 FIFA Club World Cup The 2011 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2011 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament that was played from 8 to 18 December 2011. It was the eighth edition of the FIFA Club Worl ...

and the

2012 Recopa Sudamericana The 2012 Recopa Sudamericana (officially the 2012 Recopa Santander Sudamericana for sponsorship reasons) was the 20th edition of the Recopa Sudamericana, the football competition organized by CONMEBOL between the winners of the previous season's t ...

Qualified teams

Starting from 2011, the most recent

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

champion would earn a berth in the tournament. However, the country of the Copa Sudamericana champion would not gain an extra berth. The Copa Sudamericana champion would take the lowest-placed berth already assigned to the country if they did not qualify for the Copa Libertadores through domestic performance.

Draw

The draw for the 2011 Copa Libertadores was held on November 25, 2010 in

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of ...

.Estelar Sorteo de la Copa Santander Libertadores de América 2011
The drawing procedure for the 12 teams in the first stage was to alternatively draw a team from each pot. The drawing procedure for the 26 teams in the second stage was to draw out the pots beginning with Pot 1. One team from each pot would be placed, in the order of being drawn, into one of eight groups from 1 to 8. When drawing from Pot 3, if a team had been placed in a group where a team from the same football association was already placed, they were moved to the subsequent group until they were no longer in a group with a team from the same association. However, a first stage winner may be drawn with a team from the same association in the second stage. For the first time, the seeded teams for the second stage were changed. Up until 2010, the 8 seeded teams included the reigning champion, and clubs from the football associations of Argentina and Brazil. For 2011, the seeded teams consisted of berths 1 from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, and berths 2 from Argentina and Brazil. The reigning champion–

–was berth 1 for Brazil. For 2012, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay would all have their berth 1 teams be seeded teams instead of the berth 1 teams from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Prior to the draw, it was announced that

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

would be one of the eight seeded teams. During the draw, however,

Deportivo Táchira ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable), an aerial lift station in Ecatepec, Mexico * Deport ...

was accidentally drawn as the seeded team for Group 4 and Caracas was drawn into Group 5 as a non-seeded team. After the ceremony, CONMEBOL recognized their error and transferred Caracas over to Group 4 and Deportivo Táchira over to Group 5. ¹Teams had not yet fully qualified to the specific berth when the draw took place.

Schedule

All dates listed are Wednesdays, but matches may be played on the day before (Tuesdays) and after (Thursdays) as well.

First stage

The First Stage began on January 25 and ended on February 3. ''Team 1'' played the second leg at home.

Second stage

The Second Stage, played in home-and-away round-robin format, began on February 9 and ended on April 20. The top two teams from each group qualified for the knockout stages.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Knockout stages

The last four stages of the tournament (Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, and Finals), played in home-and-away

two-legged In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

format, form a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, contested by the sixteen teams which advance from the Second Stage.Copa Santander Libertadores de América 2011 Reglamento
In each tie, the team with the higher seed will play at home in the second leg.

Seeding

The 16 qualified teams are seeded in the knockout stages according to their results in the second stage, with the group winners seeded 1–8, and the group runners-up seeded 9–16. The teams were ranked by: 1. Points (Pts); 2. Goal difference (GD); 3. Goals scored (GF); 4. Away goals (AG); 5. Drawing of lots.

Bracket

Round of 16

The Round of 16 began on April 26 and ended on May 5. ''Team 1'' played the second leg at home.

Quarter-finals

The Quarterfinals began on May 11 and ended on May 19. ''Team 1'' played the second leg at home.

Semi-finals

The Semi-finals began on May 25 and ended on June 2. ''Team 1'' played the second leg at home.

Finals

The Finals were played over two legs, with the higher-seeded team playing the second leg at home. If the teams were tied on points and

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

at the end of regulation in the second leg, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

would not be applied and 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

would be played. If still tied after extra time, the title would be decided by

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

. ---- ''Santos won on points 4–1.''

Top goalscorers

Awards

Player of the week

References

External links

Official webpage
{{2011 in South American Football (CONMEBOL)

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