2019 J.League Cup
2019 J. League Cup is the 27th J.League Cup, which began on 6 March 2019. The official title is 2019 J.League YBC Levain Cup (2019 JリーグYBCルヴァンカップ) due to the sponsorship of Yamazaki Baking. The winners would have earned the right to play against the winners of the 2019 Copa Sudamericana in the 2020 J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship, but it would not held due to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held at the same time. Format. J.League announced the schedule and the matchdays up to the semifinals on December 14, 2018, and full fixture of the matches including  the final (on October 26, at Saitama Stadium 2002) on 23 January, 2019. All 18 teams playing in the 2019 J1 League will participate. In addition, depending on the result of the 2019 AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs, one or two teams from 2019 J2 League with the best performance in the previous season (i.e., Kashiwa Reysol and V-Varen Nagasaki, the 17th- and 18th-placed teams in 2018 J1 League, respectively) may participate. Group stage. Participants of 2019 AFC Champions League group stage (ACL) receive byes for the group stage and the play-off stage. As a result , 16 teams will play the group stage. 16 teams are divided into four groups of four teams by the performance of 2018 J1 League and 2018 J2 League (parenthesized below). Each group is played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. Each match will be played for 90 minutes (without extra time). Group stage tiebreakers. In the group stage, teams in a group are ranked by points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If the points are tied, the following tiebreakers are applied: In case of ranking third-placed teams  across the groups, the following criteria are used: Play-off stage. The number of play-off stage participants depends on the number of teams advanced to ACL group stage. The play-off stage is played as two-legged ties of two teams each. The away goals rule, an extra time (away goals rule is not applied for the scores in the extra time), and a penalty shoot-out are used if needed. Prime stage (Knockout stage). The prime stage (knockout stage) is played by 8 teams who advanced to ACL group stage and won the play-off stage. The quarterfinals  and the semifinals are played as two-legged ties (same as the play-off stage). The final is a single game. The video assistant referee (VAR) system will be used during the knockout stage. Schedule. The schedule, except for the final, was announced on 14 December 2018. All matches of the group stage and the play-off stage will be played on Wednesdays. Group stage. Group A. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Group B. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Group C. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Group D. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Play-off stage. Source: J. League Data Site Prime stage (Knockout stage). The draw for  the prime stage was held on July 28 at Fuji TV Odaiba headquarters, Tokyo. "For each tie in the bracket (except the final), the team on top will play the second leg at home". Quarter-finals. F.C. Tokyo played their home match on NACK5 Stadium Omiya instead of their regular home stadium Ajinomoto Stadium. Source: J. League Data Site Semi-finals. Source: J. League Data Site