The 2018

Copa do Nordeste Copa do Nordeste (''Cup of the North-East''), also known as Campeonato do Nordeste (''Championship of the North-East'') or Copa Nordeste (''Northeastern Cup''), and sometimes informally referred as Lampions League – in reference to the UEFA Ch ...

was the 15th edition of the main football tournament featuring teams from the Brazilian Northeast Region. The competition featured 20 clubs, with Bahia and Pernambuco having three seeds each, and Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Alagoas, Paraíba, Maranhão and Piauí with two seeds each. Sampaio Corrêa defeated the defending champions

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

1–0 on aggregate to win their first Copa do Nordeste title. As champions, Sampaio Corrêa qualified for the Round of 16 of the

2019 Copa do Brasil The 2019 Copa do Brasil (officially the Copa Continental Pneus do Brasil 2019 for sponsorship reasons) was the 31st edition of the Copa do Brasil football competition. It was held between 5 February and 18 September 2019. The competition was cont ...

Format changes

In 2018 season there was a qualifying stage. In the qualifying stage, a total of 8 teams competed in 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 ...

where the four winners advanced to the group stage. The group stage had only 4 groups. 12 teams gained direct entries into the group stage while the other four berths were decided by the qualifying stage.

Teams

The entry stage was determined as follows: *Group stage: 12 teams **Teams which qualified for berths 1–2 from Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco **Teams which qualified for berth 1 from Alagoas, Maranhão, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe *Qualifying stage: 8 teams **Teams which qualified for berth 3 from Bahia and Pernambuco **Teams which qualified for berth 2 from Alagoas, Maranhão, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe :

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Draws

The draw for the qualifying stage was held on 3 July 2017, 11:00, at the CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Teams were seeded by their 2017

CBF ranking The CBF Rankings are football rankings produced by the ''CBF'', the Brazilian Football Confederation. The Ranking Nacional de Federações determines how many berths each state federation receives in Copa do Brasil, Campeonato Brasileiro Série D, ...

(shown in parentheses). The eight teams were drawn into four ties, with the Pot A teams hosting the second leg. : The draw for the group stage was held on 6 September 2017, 21:00, at the Auditório da Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Maranhão (FIEMA) in São Luís. For the group stage, the 16 teams were drawn into four groups (Groups 1–4) of four containing a team from each of the four pots. Teams were seeded by their 2017

(shown in parentheses) excluding the winners of the qualifying stage, which were allocated to Pot 4. :

Qualifying stage

In the qualifying stage, each tie was played on a 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 ...

basis. If tied on aggregate, 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 be used. If still tied,

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 not be played, and the

penalty shoot-out 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 ...

would be used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 12).

Matches

Group stage

In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, the following criteria would be used to determine the ranking: 1. Wins; 2.

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 ...

; 3. Goals scored; 4. Head-to-head (if the tie was only between two teams). If tie on aggregate, the away goals rule would be used (except if both teams shared the same stadium); 5. Fewest red cards; 6. Fewest yellow cards; 7. Draw in the headquarters of the

Brazilian Football Confederation The Brazilian Football Confederation ( pt, Confederação Brasileira de Futebol; CBF) is the governing body of football in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country ...

(Regulations Article 10). The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the quarter-finals of the knockout stages.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Final stages

Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams played a

with the following rules: *Each tie would be played on a home-and-away

basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg (Regulations Article 14.a and 15). *If tied on aggregate, the

would be used (except if both teams shared the same stadium). If still tied,

would not be played, and the

would be used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 12).

Seeding

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 2 April 2018, 12:00, at the CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The 8 qualified teams were drawn into four ties between a group winner (Pot 1) and a group runner-up (Pot 2), with the group winners hosting the second leg. Starting from the semi-finals, the teams would be seeded according to their performance in the tournament. The teams would be ranked according to overall points. If tied on overall points, the following criteria would be used to determine the ranking: 1. Overall wins; 2. Overall goal difference; 3. Draw in the headquarters of the

(Regulations Article 15).

Bracket

Quarter-finals

---- ''ABC won 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the semi-finals.'' ---- ---- ''Sampaio Corrêa won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the semi-finals.'' ---- ---- ''Tied 3–3 on aggregate, Ceará won on away goals and advanced to the semi-finals.'' ---- ---- ''Bahia won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the semi-finals.''

Semi-finals

---- ''Sampaio Corrêa won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the finals.'' ---- ---- ''Bahia won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the finals.''

Finals

----

Top goalscorers

2018 Copa do Nordeste team

The 2018 Copa do Nordeste team was a squad consisting of the eleven most impressive players at the tournament. , ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copa do Nordeste 2018 2018 domestic association football cups Copa do Nordeste 2018 in Brazilian football