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 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 ...

. River Plate defeated

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

in the

finals 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 ...

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

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and also earned the right to play against the winners of the

2018 Copa Sudamericana The 2018 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 17th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or ), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Brazilian club Atlético Paran ...

in the 2019 Recopa Sudamericana. They also automatically qualified for the

2019 Copa Libertadores The 2019 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores was the 60th edition of the Copa Libertadores, CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the ''Copa Libertadores''), South America's premier club association football, football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. ...

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 Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

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

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

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(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.

Teams

Schedule

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