2018 Copa Libertadores

The 2018 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores was the 59th edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the Copa Libertadores), South America's premier club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.
River Plate defeated Boca Juniors in the finals 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 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 in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 11 November 2018, while the second leg took place outside South America at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain (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.
The following 47 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL member associations qualified for the tournament:
Teams from Mexico, as they did in 2017, withdrew from the 2018 Copa Libertadores, citing schedule conflicts.
The entry stage was determined as follows:
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.
The draw for the qualifying stages and group stage was held on 20 December 2017, 20:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.
Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL ranking of the Copa Libertadores (shown in parentheses), taking into account of the following three factors:
For the first stage, the six teams were drawn into three ties (E1–E3), with the seeded teams hosting the second leg.
For the second stage, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (C1–C8), with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same tie, excluding the winners of the first stage, which were unseeded and whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, and could be drawn into the same tie with another team from the same association.
For the third stage, no draw was made, and the eight teams were allocated into the following four ties (G1–G4), with the second stage winners with the higher CONMEBOL ranking hosting the second leg. As the identity of the winners of the second stage was not known at the time of the draw, they could be drawn into the same tie with another team from the same association.
For the group stage, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups (Groups A–H, also denoted as Groups 1–8) of four containing a team from each of the four pots. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group, excluding the winners of the third stage, which were allocated to Pot 4 and whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, and could be drawn into the same group with another team from the same association.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 4 June 2018, 20:00 PYT (UTC−4), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay. For the round of 16, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (A–H) between a group winner (Pot 1) and a group runner-up (Pot 2), with the group winners hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association or the same group could be drawn into the same tie.
In the qualifying stages, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule was used. If still tied, extra time was not played, and a penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 29).
The qualifying stages were structured as follows:
The two best teams eliminated in the third stage entered the Copa Sudamericana second stage. Only matches in the third stage were considered for the ranking of teams.
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 were used to determine the ranking: 1. Goal difference; 2. Goals scored; 3. Away goals scored; 4. CONMEBOL ranking (Regulations Article 28).
The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16 of the knockout stages. The third-placed teams of each group entered the Copa Sudamericana second stage.
Starting from the round of 16, the teams played a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:
Starting from the round of 16, the teams were seeded according to their results in the group stage, with the group winners (Pot 1 in round of 16 draw) seeded 1–8, and the group runners-up (Pot 2 in round of 16 draw) seeded 9–16.
The bracket was decided based on the round of 16 draw, which was held on 4 June 2018.
River Plate won 5–3 on aggregate.
Source: CONMEBOL.com
Source: CONMEBOL.com