The 2021 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 20th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or ),

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

's secondary club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament organized by

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

. Starting from this season, teams must be in the top division of their member association to play in South American club competitions, except for teams which are champions of the qualifying tournaments or cups. On 14 May 2020, CONMEBOL announced the candidate venues for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 club competition finals. On 13 May 2021, CONMEBOL announced that the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

would be played at the

Estadio Centenario Centenario Stadium (, ; , named after the Constitution of Uruguay of 1830, centenary of Constitution of Uruguay, Uruguay's Constitution) is an association football stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay. Located in the Parque Batlle, Parque Battle neig ...

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay on 6 November 2021, but on 27 July 2021 the final was eventually confirmed to have been rescheduled to 20 November 2021. Brazilian club Athletico Paranaense defeated fellow Brazilian club

Red Bull Bragantino Red Bull Bragantino () is a Brazilian football club based in Bragança Paulista, São Paulo. It competes in the Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system, as well as in the Campeonato Paulista Série A1, the highest lev ...

by a 1–0 score in the final to win their second tournament title. As winners of the 2021 Copa Sudamericana, Athletico Paranaense earned the right to play against the winners of the

2021 Copa Libertadores The 2021 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores was the 62nd edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the ''Copa Libertadores''), South America's premier club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Starting from this season, teams must ...

in the 2022 Recopa Sudamericana. They also automatically qualified for the 2022 Copa Libertadores group stage.

Defensa y Justicia Club Social y Deportivo Defensa y Justicia, commonly known as Defensa y Justicia, is an Argentine football club from Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires, established in 1935.

were the defending champions, but did not play this edition since they qualified for the 2021 Copa Libertadores group stage as Copa Sudamericana champions and later advanced to the knockout stage.

Format changes

On 2 October 2020, CONMEBOL's Council approved the implementation of format changes to the Copa Sudamericana starting from this edition, aimed at ensuring that each of the countries is better represented in the different stages of the competition. The following changes were implemented: *The tournament was expanded from 54 to 56 teams, with all four Copa Libertadores third stage losers entering the competition instead of the two best teams eliminated. *In the first stage, teams from all associations other than Argentina and Brazil played against a team from their same association in double-legged ties with the winners qualifying for a 32-team group stage, ensuring that at least two teams from each association will take part in the group stage. *A group stage was included, with teams from Argentina and Brazil directly entering the Copa Sudamericana entering the competition at this stage, joining the 16 first stage winners and the four teams eliminated in the Copa Libertadores third stage. The winners of each group qualified for the round of 16. *The eight third-placed teams of the Copa Libertadores group stage entered the competition at the round of 16.

Teams

The following 44 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament: *Argentina and Brazil: 6 berths each *All other associations: 4 berths each The entry stage is determined as follows: * Group stage: 12 teams (teams from Argentina and Brazil) * First stage: 32 teams (teams from all other associations) A further 12 teams eliminated from the

were transferred to the Copa Sudamericana, entering the group stage (four teams) and the round of 16 (eight teams). ;Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition will be as follows:

Draws

First stage

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

Final

Statistics

Top scorers

References

External links

CONMEBOL Sudamericana 2021
CONMEBOL.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Copa Sudamericana 2021

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...