2019 Copa Libertadores

The 2019 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores was the 60th edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the Copa Libertadores), South America's premier club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.
Flamengo defeated defending champions River Plate in the final by a 2–1 score to win their second Copa Libertadores title. As champions, they qualified as the CONMEBOL representative at the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar, and earned the right to play against the winners of the 2019 Copa Sudamericana in the 2020 Recopa Sudamericana. They also automatically qualified for the 2020 Copa Libertadores group stage.
In 2016, CONMEBOL proposed that the Copa Libertadores final to be played as a single match instead of over two legs. It was only on 23 February 2018 that CONMEBOL was able to confirm that starting from this edition, the final will be played as a single match at a venue chosen in advance, and on 11 June 2018 after its Council meeting in Moscow, the confederation confirmed that the final would be played on 23 November 2019. On 14 August 2018, CONMEBOL announced that the 2019 final would be played in Santiago, Chile at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos, however, due to safety concerns derived from the 2019 Chilean protests, and after consultations with the finalist clubs and their respective football associations, CONMEBOL announced on 5 November 2019 that the match was moved to the Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru.
The following 47 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL member associations qualified for the tournament:
The entry stage is determined as follows:
The schedule of the competition was as follows. After changing the dates of the 2019 Copa América, the Brazilian Football Confederation released on 3 October 2018 its calendar for the following year, with new dates for the Copa Libertadores. The first stage matches were played on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday instead of Monday and Friday in the last two seasons. The group stage matches were played in six matchdays instead of being spread over a longer period.
The draw for the qualifying stages and group stage was held on 17 December 2018, 20:30 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.
Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL ranking of the Copa Libertadores as of 15 December 2018 (shown in parentheses), taking into account the following three factors:
For the first stage, the six teams were drawn into three ties (E1–E3), with the teams from Pot 1 hosting the second leg.
For the second stage, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (C1–C8), with the teams from Pot 1 hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same tie, excluding the three winners of the first stage, which were allocated to Pot 2 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, the eight winners of the second stage were allocated without any draw into the following four ties (G1–G4), with the team in each tie with the higher CONMEBOL ranking hosting the second leg. As their identity 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) 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 four 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 13 May 2019, 20:30 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 the following criteria: 1. Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss); 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Away goals scored; 5. CONMEBOL ranking (Regulations Article 28).
The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16 of the final 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 are seeded according to their results in the group stage, with the group winners (Pot 1) seeded 1–8, and the group runners-up (Pot 2) seeded 9–16.
The bracket was decided based on the round of 16 draw, which was held on 13 May 2019.
Source: CONMEBOL.com
Source: CONMEBOL.com
OptaJavier Stats Perform selected the following 11 players as the team of the tournament.