The 2018 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores was the 59th edition of the

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

(also referred to as the ''Copa Libertadores''), South America's premier 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 ...

. River Plate defeated

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

in the

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

by an aggregate score of 5–3 to win their fourth tournament title. As champions, they qualified as the CONMEBOL representative at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and also earned the right to play against the winners of the 2018 Copa Sudamericana in the 2019 Recopa Sudamericana. They also automatically qualified for the 2019 Copa Libertadores group stage. Grêmio were the defending champions, but were defeated by River Plate in the semifinals. The first leg of the final was played at the

Estadio Alberto J. Armando The Alberto José Armando Stadium is a football stadium located in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Widely known as La Bombonera (; en, The chocolate box) due to its shape, with a "flat" stand on one side of the pitch and three steep stands rou ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

on 11 November 2018, while the second leg took place outside South America at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(a neutral venue) on 9 December 2018. The ''New York Times'' reported that the second leg was referred to as the "Final to End All Finals" and the biggest game in Argentine sport history but it was postponed and moved due to violence against the Boca Juniors team.

Teams

The following 47 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL member associations qualified for the tournament: *Copa Libertadores champions *Copa Sudamericana champions *Brazil: 7 berths *Argentina: 6 berths *All other associations: 4 berths each Teams from Mexico, as they did in 2017, withdrew from the 2018 Copa Libertadores, citing schedule conflicts. The entry stage was determined as follows: *Group stage: 28 teams **Copa Libertadores champions **Copa Sudamericana champions **Teams which qualified for berths 1–5 from Argentina and Brazil **Teams which qualified for berths 1–2 from all other associations *Second stage: 13 teams **Teams which qualified for berths 6–7 from Brazil **Team which qualified for berth 6 from Argentina **Teams which qualified for berths 3–4 from Chile and Colombia **Teams which qualified for berths 3 from all other associations *First stage: 6 teams **Teams which qualified for berths 4 from Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows. The first stage matches were played on Monday and Friday, instead of the usual midweek of Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. The finals were initially scheduled for 7 and 28 November, but were moved to 10 and 24 November after the finalists were confirmed.

Draws

Qualifying stages

First stage

Second stage

Third stage

Copa Sudamericana qualification

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Final stages

Seeding

Bracket

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Finals

Statistics

Top scorers

Top assists

Notes

References

External links

CONMEBOL Libertadores 2018
CONMEBOL.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Copa Libertadores 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...