2018 Copa Libertadores final stages

The 2018 Copa Libertadores final stages were played from 7 August to 9 December 2018.^[1] A total of 16 teams competed in the final stages to decide the champions of the 2018 Copa Libertadores.^[2]

Qualified teams

The winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage advanced to the round of 16.

Group	Winners	Runners-up
A	Grêmio	Cerro Porteño
B	Atlético Nacional	Colo-Colo
C	Libertad	Atlético Tucumán
D	River Plate	Flamengo
E	Cruzeiro	Racing
F	Santos	Estudiantes
G	Corinthians	Independiente
H	Palmeiras	Boca Juniors

Seeding

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.^[3]

Seed	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Round of 16 draw
1	H	Palmeiras	6	5	1	0	14	3	+11	16	Pot 1
2	A	Grêmio	6	4	2	0	13	2	+11	14
3	C	Libertad	6	4	1	1	10	4	+6	13
4	D	River Plate	6	3	3	0	6	3	+3	12
5	E	Cruzeiro	6	3	2	1	15	5	+10	11
6	G	Corinthians	6	3	1	2	11	5	+6	10
7	B	Atlético Nacional	6	3	1	2	9	3	+6	10
8	F	Santos	6	3	1	2	6	4	+2	10
9	A	Cerro Porteño	6	4	1	1	8	8	0	13	Pot 2
10	E	Racing	6	3	2	1	12	6	+6	11
11	D	Flamengo	6	2	4	0	7	4	+3	10
12	G	Independiente	6	3	1	2	6	4	+2	10
13	C	Atlético Tucumán	6	3	1	2	7	6	+1	10
14	H	Boca Juniors	6	2	3	1	8	4	+4	9
15	F	Estudiantes	6	2	2	2	6	4	+2	8
16	B	Colo-Colo	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8

Source: CONMEBOL
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Away goals scored; 5) CONMEBOL ranking (Regulations Article 22.i).^[2]

Format

Starting from the round of 16, the teams played a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:^[2]

• Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg (Regulations Article 23).
• In the round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals, 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).
• In the finals, if tied on aggregate, the away goals rule was not used, and 30 minutes of extra time were played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 30).

Draw

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.^[4][5] 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.^[6]

Bracket

The bracket starting from the round of 16 was determined as follows:

Round	Matchups
Round of 16	(Group winners host second leg, matchups decided by draw) Match A Match B Match C Match D Match E Match F Match G Match H
Quarterfinals	(Higher-seeded team host second leg) Match S1: Winner A vs. Winner H Match S2: Winner B vs. Winner G Match S3: Winner C vs. Winner F Match S4: Winner D vs. Winner E
Semifinals	(Higher-seeded team host second leg) Match F1: Winner S1 vs. Winner S4 Match F2: Winner S2 vs. Winner S3
Finals	(Higher-seeded team host second leg) Winner F1 vs. Winner F2

The bracket was decided based on the round of 16 draw, which was held on 4 June 2018.

	Round of 16							Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Finals
	14	Boca Juniors	2	4	6
	3	Libertad	0	2	2
								14	Boca Juniors	2	1	3
								5	Cruzeiro	0	1	1
	11	Flamengo	0	1	1
	5	Cruzeiro	2	0	2
															14	Boca Juniors	2	2	4
															1	Palmeiras	0	2	2
	16	Colo-Colo (a)	1	1	2
	6	Corinthians	0	2	2
								16	Colo-Colo	0	0	0
								1	Palmeiras	2	2	4
	9	Cerro Porteño	0	1	1
	1	Palmeiras	2	0	2
																						14	Boca Juniors	2	1	3
																						4	River Plate	2	3	5
	12	Independiente	3	0	3
	8	Santos	0	0	0
								12	Independiente	0	1	1
								4	River Plate	0	3	3
	10	Racing	0	0	0
	4	River Plate	0	3	3
															4	River Plate (a)	0	2	2
															2	Grêmio	1	1	2
	13	Atlético Tucumán	2	0	2
	7	Atlético Nacional	0	1	1
								13	Atlético Tucumán	0	0	0
								2	Grêmio	2	4	6
	15	Estudiantes	2	1	3 (3)
	2	Grêmio (p)	1	2	3 (5)

Round of 16

The first legs were played on 7–9 and 21 August, and the second legs were played on 28–30 August 2018.^[7][8]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Racing	0–3	River Plate	0–0	0–3
Colo-Colo	2–2 (a)	Corinthians	1–0	1–2
Flamengo	1–2	Cruzeiro	0–2	1–0
Estudiantes	3–3 (3–5 p)	Grêmio	2–1	1–2
Atlético Tucumán	2–1	Atlético Nacional	2–0	0–1
Boca Juniors	6–2	Libertad	2–0	4–2
Cerro Porteño	1–2	Palmeiras	0–2	1–0
Independiente	3–0	Santos	3–0[A]	0–0[B]

Notes

1. ^
   CONMEBOL awarded Independiente a 3–0 win as a result of Santos fielding the ineligible player Carlos Sánchez. The match originally ended 0–0.^[9]
2. ^
   Match abandoned after 81 minutes due to crowd trouble, with the score 0–0 at the time.^[10]

Match A

Racing	0–0	River Plate
	Report

9 August 2018 (2018-08-09)

19:30 UTC−3

Estadio Presidente Juan Domingo Perón, Avellaneda

Referee: Anderson Daronco (Brazil)

---

River Plate	3–0	Racing
Pratto 10' Palacios 27' Borré 80'	Report

29 August 2018 (2018-08-29)

19:30 UTC−3

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires

Referee: Mario Díaz de Vivar (Paraguay)

River Plate won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S1).

Match B

Colo-Colo	1–0	Corinthians
Carmona 37'	Report

8 August 2018 (2018-08-08)

20:45 UTC−4

Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago

Referee: Wilmar Roldán (Colombia)

---

Corinthians	2–1	Colo-Colo
Jádson 16' (pen.) Roger 63'	Report	Barrios 31'

29 August 2018 (2018-08-29)

21:45 UTC−3

Arena Corinthians, São Paulo

Attendance: 38,112

Referee: Néstor Pitana (Argentina)

Tied 2–2 on aggregate, Colo-Colo won on away goals and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S2).

Match C

Flamengo	0–2	Cruzeiro
	Report	De Arrascaeta 9' Thiago Neves 77'

8 August 2018 (2018-08-08)

21:45 UTC−3

Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro

Attendance: 45,967

Referee: Néstor Pitana (Argentina)

---

Cruzeiro	0–1	Flamengo
	Report	Léo Duarte 69'

29 August 2018 (2018-08-29)

21:45 UTC−3

Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte

Referee: Andrés Cunha (Uruguay)

Cruzeiro won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S3).

Match D

Estudiantes	2–1	Grêmio
Apaolaza 8' Campi 37'	Report	Kannemann 43'

7 August 2018 (2018-08-07)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Centenario Ciudad de Quilmes, Quilmes^{[note 1]}

Referee: Andrés Cunha (Uruguay)

---

Grêmio	2–1	Estudiantes
Éverton 5' Alisson 90+2'	Report	Rodríguez 8'
Penalties
Maicon Éverton Jael Alisson André	5–3	Rodríguez Campi Noguera Lugüercio

28 August 2018 (2018-08-28)

21:45 UTC−3

Arena do Grêmio, Porto Alegre

Attendance: 48,082

Referee: Éber Aquino (Paraguay)

Tied 3–3 on aggregate, Grêmio won on penalties and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S4).

Match E

Atlético Tucumán	2–0	Atlético Nacional
Díaz 7' Acosta 70'	Report

9 August 2018 (2018-08-09)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Monumental José Fierro, Tucumán

Referee: Éber Aquino (Paraguay)

---

Atlético Nacional	1–0	Atlético Tucumán
Duarte 11'	Report

28 August 2018 (2018-08-28)

19:45 UTC−5

Estadio Atanasio Girardot, Medellín

Referee: Roberto Tobar (Chile)

Atlético Tucumán won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S4).

Match F

Boca Juniors	2–0	Libertad
Ábila 6' Zárate 42'	Report

8 August 2018 (2018-08-08)

19:30 UTC−3

Estadio Alberto J. Armando, Buenos Aires

Referee: Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)

---

Libertad	2–4	Boca Juniors
Ó. Cardozo 11', 38' (pen.)	Report	Pavón 18' Zárate 21' Tévez 74' Cardona 79' (pen.)

30 August 2018 (2018-08-30)

18:30 UTC−4

Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción^{[note 2]}

Referee: Wilmar Roldán (Colombia)

Boca Juniors won 6–2 on aggregate and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S3).

Match G

Cerro Porteño	0–2	Palmeiras
	Report	Borja 46', 70'

9 August 2018 (2018-08-09)

20:45 UTC−4

Estadio General Pablo Rojas, Asunción

Referee: Fernando Rapallini (Argentina)

---

Palmeiras	0–1	Cerro Porteño
	Report	Arzamendia 56'

30 August 2018 (2018-08-30)

21:45 UTC−3

Allianz Parque, São Paulo

Attendance: 33,204

Referee: Germán Delfino (Argentina)

Palmeiras won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S2).

Match H

Independiente	3–0 Awarded[9]	Santos
	Report

21 August 2018 (2018-08-21)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Libertadores de América, Avellaneda

Referee: Diego Haro (Peru)

---

Santos	0–0	Independiente
	Report

28 August 2018 (2018-08-28)

19:30 UTC−3

Estádio do Pacaembu, São Paulo^{[note 3]}

Attendance: 33,642

Referee: Julio Bascuñán (Chile)

Independiente won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the quarterfinals (Match S1).

Quarter-finals

The first legs were played on 18–20 September, and the second legs were played on 2–4 October 2018.^[11][12]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Independiente	1–3	River Plate	0–0	1–3
Colo-Colo	0–4	Palmeiras	0–2	0–2
Boca Juniors	3–1	Cruzeiro	2–0	1–1
Atlético Tucumán	0–6	Grêmio	0–2	0–4

Match S1

Independiente	0–0	River Plate
	Report

19 September 2018 (2018-09-19)

19:30 UTC−3

Estadio Libertadores de América, Avellaneda

Referee: Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)

---

River Plate	3–1	Independiente
Scocco 46' Quintero 68' Borré 84'	Report	S. Romero 54'

2 October 2018 (2018-10-02)

19:30 UTC−3

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires

Referee: Anderson Daronco (Brazil)

River Plate won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the semifinals (Match F1).

Match S2

Colo-Colo	0–2	Palmeiras
	Report	Bruno Henrique 2' Dudu 77'

20 September 2018 (2018-09-20)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago

Referee: Andrés Cunha (Uruguay)

---

Palmeiras	2–0	Colo-Colo
Dudu 36' Borja 52' (pen.)	Report

3 October 2018 (2018-10-03)

21:45 UTC−3

Allianz Parque, São Paulo

Attendance: 37,950

Referee: Wilmar Roldán (Colombia)

Palmeiras won 4–0 on aggregate and advanced to the semifinals (Match F2).

Match S3

Boca Juniors	2–0	Cruzeiro
Zárate 35' Pérez 81'	Report

19 September 2018 (2018-09-19)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Alberto J. Armando, Buenos Aires

Referee: Éber Aquino (Paraguay)

---

Cruzeiro	1–1	Boca Juniors
Sassá 57'	Report	Pavón 90+3'

4 October 2018 (2018-10-04)

21:45 UTC−3

Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte

Attendance: 56,791

Referee: Andrés Cunha (Uruguay)

Boca Juniors won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the semifinals (Match F2).

Match S4

Atlético Tucumán	0–2	Grêmio
	Report	Alisson 34' Éverton 54'

18 September 2018 (2018-09-18)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Monumental José Fierro, Tucumán

Referee: Wilmar Roldán (Colombia)

---

Grêmio	4–0	Atlético Tucumán
Luan 35' Cícero 44' (pen.) Mercier 52' (o.g.) Jael 90+1' (pen.)	Report

2 October 2018 (2018-10-02)

21:45 UTC−3

Arena do Grêmio, Porto Alegre

Attendance: 47,304

Referee: Roberto Tobar (Chile)

Grêmio won 6–0 on aggregate and advanced to the semifinals (Match F1).

Semi-finals

The first legs were played on 23–24 October, and the second legs were played on 30–31 October 2018.^[13][14]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
River Plate	2–2 (a)	Grêmio	0–1	2–1
Boca Juniors	4–2	Palmeiras	2–0	2–2

Match F1

River Plate	0–1	Grêmio
	Report	Michel 61'

23 October 2018 (2018-10-23)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires

Referee: Víctor Carrillo (Peru)

---

Grêmio	1–2	River Plate
Léo Gomes 35'	Report	Borré 81' Martínez 90+4' (pen.)

30 October 2018 (2018-10-30)

21:45 UTC−3

Arena do Grêmio, Porto Alegre

Attendance: 53,571

Referee: Andrés Cunha (Uruguay)

Tied 2–2 on aggregate, River Plate won on away goals and advanced to the finals.

Match F2

Boca Juniors	2–0	Palmeiras
Benedetto 83', 87'	Report

24 October 2018 (2018-10-24)

21:45 UTC−3

Estadio Alberto J. Armando, Buenos Aires

Referee: Roberto Tobar (Chile)

---

Palmeiras	2–2	Boca Juniors
Luan 52' Gómez 60' (pen.)	Report	Ábila 17' Benedetto 69'

31 October 2018 (2018-10-31)

21:45 UTC−3

Allianz Parque, São Paulo

Attendance: 40,299

Referee: Wilmar Roldán (Colombia)

Boca Juniors won 4–2 on aggregate and advanced to the finals.

Finals

Main article: 2018 Copa Libertadores Finals

In the finals, if tied on aggregate, the away goals rule was not used, and 30 minutes of extra time were played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 30).^[2]

The first leg was played on 11 November (originally scheduled on 10 November, but postponed due to rain), and the second leg was played on 9 December 2018 (originally scheduled on 24 November, but postponed due to safety concerns following an attack on the Boca Juniors team bus prior to the original scheduled match).^[15][16]

Boca Juniors	2–2	River Plate
Ábila 34' Benedetto 45+1'	Report	Pratto 35' Izquierdoz 61' (o.g.)

11 November 2018 (2018-11-11)^{[note 4]}

16:00 UTC−3

Estadio Alberto J. Armando, Buenos Aires

Attendance: 49,000

Referee: Roberto Tobar (Chile)

---

River Plate	3–1 (a.e.t.)	Boca Juniors
Pratto 68' Quintero 109' G. Martínez 120+2'	Report	Benedetto 44'

9 December 2018 (2018-12-09)^{[note 5]}

20:30 UTC+1

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid^{[note 6]}

Attendance: 62,282

Referee: Andrés Cunha (Uruguay)

River Plate won 5–3 on aggregate.

Notes

1. Estudiantes played their home match against Grêmio at Estadio Centenario Ciudad de Quilmes, Quilmes, instead of their regular stadium Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata.
2. Libertad played their home match against Boca Juniors at Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, instead of their regular stadium Estadio Dr. Nicolás Léoz, Asunción.
3. Santos played their home match against Independiente at Estádio do Pacaembu, São Paulo, instead of their regular stadium Estádio Urbano Caldeira, Santos.
4. The Boca Juniors v River Plate match, originally scheduled on 10 November 2018, 17:00 UTC−3, was postponed to the following day due to a waterlogged pitch.^[17]
5. The River Plate v Boca Juniors match, originally scheduled on 24 November 2018, 17:00 UTC−3, was postponed to 9 December 2018 due to an attack on the Boca Juniors team bus when several players were injured.^[18]
6. The River Plate v Boca Juniors match, originally scheduled to be hosted by River Plate at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires, took place in Spain at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid due to safety concerns.^[19]