The 2017 J.League Cup (2017 Jリーグカップ), or officially the 2017 J.League YBC Levain Cup (2017 JリーグYBCルヴァンカップ), was the 42nd edition of the most prestigious Japanese

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 ...

league cup tournament and the 25th edition under the current

J.League Cup The is a Japanese football (soccer) competition organized by J.League. It has been sponsored by Yamazaki Biscuits (YBC) of Yamazaki Baking (formerly Yamazaki Nabisco) since its inception in 1992. It is also known as the or (Levain is one of YB ...

format.

Format

Teams from the J.League Division 1 will take part in the tournament. Teams that qualified for

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group stage (3 or 4 teams: later confirmed as

Gamba Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Gamba'' comes from the Japanese , meaning "to do your best" or "to st ...

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and

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) were given byes to the quarter-finals. The remaining teams (14 or 15 teams) started from the group stage, where they were divided into two groups of 7 or 8 teams. The group winners of each group were to qualify for the quarter-finals. The remained quarter-finalists (2 or 3 teams) were to be the winners of the play-off of the following

two-legged tie 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 ...

s: * If 3 teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals due to the participation in AFC Champions League: ** Group A runners-up v. Group B fourth place ** Group A third place v. Group B third place ** Group A fourth place v. Group B runners-up * If 4 teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals due to the participation in AFC Champions League: ** Group A runners-up v. Group B third place ** Group A third place v. Group B runners-up

Format

Group stage

Group A

Standings

Results

Group B

Standings

Results

Play-off stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

First leg

Second leg

Final

Top scorers

References