2018 Copa do Nordeste

The 2018 Copa do Nordeste was the 15th edition of the main football tournament featuring teams from the Brazilian Northeast Region. The competition featured 20 clubs, with Bahia and Pernambuco having three seeds each, and Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Alagoas, Paraíba, Maranhão and Piauí with two seeds each.^[1]

2018 Copa do Nordeste

Tournament details
Country	Brazil
Dates	15 August 2017–7 July 2018
Teams	20
Final positions
Champions	Sampaio Corrêa
Runner-up	Bahia
2019 Copa do Brasil	Sampaio Corrêa
Tournament statistics
Matches played	70
Goals scored	163 (2.33 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Arthur Cabral Yago (5 goals each)
Awards
Best player	Andrey
← 2017 2019 →

Sampaio Corrêa defeated the defending champions Bahia 1–0 on aggregate to win their first Copa do Nordeste title. As champions, Sampaio Corrêa qualified for the Round of 16 of the 2019 Copa do Brasil.^[2]

Format changes

In 2018 season there was a qualifying stage. In the qualifying stage, a total of 8 teams competed in a single-elimination tournament where the four winners advanced to the group stage.^[3] The group stage had only 4 groups. 12 teams gained direct entries into the group stage while the other four berths were decided by the qualifying stage.

Teams

The entry stage was determined as follows:

• Group stage: 12 teams
  • Teams which qualified for berths 1–2 from Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco
  • Teams which qualified for berth 1 from Alagoas, Maranhão, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe
• Qualifying stage: 8 teams
  • Teams which qualified for berth 3 from Bahia and Pernambuco
  • Teams which qualified for berth 2 from Alagoas, Maranhão, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe

Association	Team (Berth)	Entry stage	Qualification method
Alagoas 2 berths	CRB (Alagoas 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Alagoano champions
	CSA (Alagoas 2)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Alagoano runners-up
Bahia 3 berths	Vitória (Bahia 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Baiano champions
	Bahia (Bahia 2)		2017 Campeonato Baiano runners-up
	Fluminense de Feira (Bahia 3)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Baiano 3rd place
Ceará 2 berths	Ceará (Ceará 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Cearense champions
	Ferroviário (Ceará 2)		2017 Campeonato Cearense runners-up
Maranhão 2 berths	Sampaio Corrêa (Maranhão 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Maranhense champions
	Cordino (Maranhão 2)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Maranhense runners-up
Paraíba 2 berths	Botafogo-PB (Paraíba 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Paraibano champions
	Treze (Paraíba 2)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Paraibano runners-up
Pernambuco[a] 3 berths	Salgueiro (Pernambuco 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Pernambucano runners-up
	Santa Cruz (Pernambuco 2)		2017 Campeonato Pernambucano 3rd place
	Náutico (Pernambuco 3)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Pernambucano 4th place
Piauí 2 berths	Altos (Piauí 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Piauiense champions
	Parnahyba (Piauí 2)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Piauiense runners-up
Rio Grande do Norte 2 berths	ABC (Rio Grande do Norte 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Potiguar champions
	Globo (Rio Grande do Norte 2)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Potiguar runners-up
Sergipe 2 berths	Confiança (Sergipe 1)	Group stage	2017 Campeonato Sergipano champions
	Itabaiana (Sergipe 2)	Qualifying stage	2017 Campeonato Sergipano runners-up

^a The Campeonato Pernambucano champions, Sport declined to participate in the Copa do Nordeste. They were replaced by Santa Cruz in the group stage. Náutico (4th place) entered the qualifying stage.^[4]

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.^[5][6]

Qualifying Stage
Match	First leg	Second leg
Parnahyba v CSA	15 August 2017	22 August 2017
Fluminense de Feira v Globo	16 August 2017	24 August 2017
Cordino v Treze	4 January 2018	11 January 2018
Itabaiana v Náutico	8 January 2018	13 January 2018
Group Stage
Round 1:	16–18 January 2018
Round 2:	30 January–8 February 2018
Round 3:	10–22 February 2018
Round 4:	10–12 March 2018
Round 5:	20–22 March 2018
Round 6:	27–29 March 2018
Final Stages
Stage	First leg	Second leg
Quarter-finals	26 April–16 May 2018	3–24 May 2018
Semi-finals	19–21 June 2018	26–28 June 2018
Finals	4 July 2018	7 July 2018

Draws

The draw for the qualifying stage was held on 3 July 2017, 11:00, at the CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.^[7]

Teams were seeded by their 2017 CBF ranking (shown in parentheses). The eight teams were drawn into four ties, with the Pot A teams hosting the second leg.

Qualifying stage draw

Pot A	Pot B
Náutico[1] (29) Treze (69) Globo (77) CSA (90)	Parnahyba (100) Itabaiana (117) Fluminense de Feira (131) Cordino (no rank)

¹ Pernambuco 3 was Santa Cruz at the time of the draw. After the draw, they were promoted to the group stage, being replaced by Náutico in the qualifying stage.

The draw for the group stage was held on 6 September 2017, 21:00, at the Auditório da Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Maranhão (FIEMA) in São Luís.^[8]

For the group stage, the 16 teams were drawn into four groups (Groups 1–4) of four containing a team from each of the four pots. Teams were seeded by their 2017 CBF ranking (shown in parentheses) excluding the winners of the qualifying stage, which were allocated to Pot 4.

Group stage draw

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Vitória (20) Bahia (21) Ceará (23) Santa Cruz (26)	ABC (31) Sampaio Corrêa (36) CRB (37) Botafogo-PB (46)	Salgueiro (49) Confiança (56) Altos (136) Ferroviário (no rank)	Náutico[2] (29) Treze[2] (69) Globo (77) CSA (90)

² The identity of Treze v Cordino and Náutico v Itabaiana winners were not known at the time of the draw.

Qualifying stage

In the qualifying stage, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule would be used. If still tied, extra time would not be played, and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 12).^[9]

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cordino	1–2	Treze	1–1	0–1
Itabaiana	0–0 (4–5 p)	Náutico	0–0	0–0
Parnahyba	0–5	CSA	0–1	0–4
Fluminense de Feira	1–3	Globo	1–1	0–2

Group stage

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 would be used to determine the ranking: 1. Wins; 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Head-to-head (if the tie was only between two teams). If tie on aggregate, the away goals rule would be used (except if both teams shared the same stadium); 5. Fewest red cards; 6. Fewest yellow cards; 7. Draw in the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (Regulations Article 10).^[9]

The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the quarter-finals of the knockout stages.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SAN	CRB	CON	TRE
1	Santa Cruz	6	3	3	0	11	4	+7	12	Quarter-finals			2–1	4–1	3–0
2	CRB	6	3	2	1	10	7	+3	11			1–1		3–1	2–1
3	Confiança	6	1	2	3	8	13	−5	5			1–1	1–1		2–1
4	Treze	6	1	1	4	6	11	−5	4			0–0	1–2	3–2

Source: CBF

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		VIT	ABC	GLO	FER
1	Vitória	6	4	1	1	17	10	+7	13	Quarter-finals			3–3	3–1	4–1
2	ABC	6	4	1	1	15	8	+7	13			3–1		2–0	3–1
3	Globo	6	2	1	3	5	8	−3	7			1–2	2–1		1–0
4	Ferroviário	6	0	1	5	4	15	−11	1			1–4	1–3	0–0

Source: CBF

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BAH	BOT	NAU	ALT
1	Bahia	6	4	0	2	11	5	+6	12	Quarter-finals			0–1	2–1	5–2
2	Botafogo-PB	6	3	1	2	4	4	0	10			0–2		2–1	1–0
3	Náutico	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			1–0	1–0		2–2
4	Altos	6	0	3	3	6	12	−6	3			0–2	0–0	2–2

Source: CBF

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CEA	SAM	CSA	SAL
1	Ceará	6	4	1	1	12	3	+9	13	Quarter-finals			2–1	1–0	6–0
2	Sampaio Corrêa	6	2	3	1	7	3	+4	9			1–0		0–0	4–0
3	CSA	6	0	5	1	3	4	−1	5			1–1	1–1		1–1
4	Salgueiro	6	0	3	3	1	13	−12	3			0–2	0–0	0–0

Source: CBF

Final stages

Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams played a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:^[9]

• Each tie would be played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg (Regulations Article 14.a and 15).
• If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule would be used (except if both teams shared the same stadium). If still tied, extra time would not be played, and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 12).

Seeding

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 2 April 2018, 12:00, at the CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The 8 qualified teams were drawn into four ties between a group winner (Pot 1) and a group runner-up (Pot 2), with the group winners hosting the second leg.^[10]

Pot 1	Pot 2
Santa Cruz Vitória Bahia Ceará	CRB ABC Botafogo-PB Sampaio Corrêa

Starting from the semi-finals, the teams would be seeded according to their performance in the tournament. The teams would be ranked according to overall points. If tied on overall points, the following criteria would be used to determine the ranking: 1. Overall wins; 2. Overall goal difference; 3. Draw in the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (Regulations Article 15).^[9]

Bracket

	Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Sampaio Corrêa	3	0	3
	Vitória	0	0	0
							Sampaio Corrêa	1	1	2
							ABC	0	1	1
	ABC	1	4	5
	Santa Cruz	0	1	1
													Sampaio Corrêa	1	0	1
													Bahia	0	0	0
	CRB	3	0	3
	Ceará (a)	3	0	3
							Ceará	0	0	0
							Bahia	1	0	1
	Botafogo-PB	1	0	1
	Bahia	2	0	2

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
ABC	5–1	Santa Cruz	1–0	4–1
Sampaio Corrêa	3–0	Vitória	3–0	0–0
CRB	3–3 (a)	Ceará	3–3	0–0
Botafogo-PB	1–2	Bahia	1–2	0–0

ABC	1–0	Santa Cruz
Leandrão 37'	Report

1 May 2018

21:45

Frasqueirão, Natal

Attendance: 2,172

Referee: Luiz César de Oliveira Magalhães (Ceará)

---

Santa Cruz	1–4	ABC
Héricles 84'	Report	Higor Leite 7' Marcos Júnior 21' Felipe Guedes 36' Matheus Carvalho 69'

22 May 2018

19:00

Estádio do Arruda, Recife

Attendance: 7,950

Referee: Denis da Silva Ribeiro Serafim (Alagoas)

ABC won 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the semi-finals.

---

Sampaio Corrêa	3–0	Vitória
Bruninho 32' Maracás 52' Alyson 75'	Report

16 May 2018

19:15

Castelão, São Luís

Attendance: 6,728

Referee: Nielson Nogueira Dias (Pernambuco)

---

Vitória	0–0	Sampaio Corrêa
	Report

24 May 2018

19:00

Barradão, Salvador

Attendance: 7,304

Referee: Pablo Ramon Gonçalves Pinheiro (Rio Grande do Norte)

Sampaio Corrêa won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the semi-finals.

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CRB	3–3	Ceará
Neto Baiano 4', 43', 68'	Report	Naldo 45+1' Pio 45+2' Arthur Cabral 89'

10 May 2018

21:45

Estádio Rei Pelé, Maceió

Attendance: 6,838

Referee: Antônio Dib Moraes de Sousa (Piauí)

---

Ceará	0–0	CRB
	Report

23 May 2018

19:00

Castelão, Fortaleza

Attendance: 8,587

Referee: Mayron Frederico dos Reis Novaes (Maranhão)

Tied 3–3 on aggregate, Ceará won on away goals and advanced to the semi-finals.

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Botafogo-PB	1–2	Bahia
Marcos Aurélio 49'	Report	Marco Antônio 45' Régis 74'

26 April 2018

21:45

Almeidão, João Pessoa

Attendance: 2,952

Referee: Péricles Bassols Pegado Cortez (Pernambuco)

---

Bahia	0–0	Botafogo-PB
	Report

3 May 2018

21:45

Estádio de Pituaçu, Salvador

Attendance: 6,992

Referee: Nielson Nogueira Dias (Pernambuco)

Bahia won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Host
1	ABC	8	6	1	1	20	9	+11	19	2nd leg
4	Sampaio Corrêa	8	3	4	1	10	3	+7	13	1st leg
2	Bahia	8	5	1	2	13	6	+7	16	2nd leg
3	Ceará	8	4	3	1	15	6	+9	15	1st leg

Source: CBF

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sampaio Corrêa	2–1	ABC	1–0	1–1
Ceará	0–1	Bahia	0–1	0–0

Sampaio Corrêa	1–0	ABC
Uilliam 59' (pen.)	Report

19 June 2018

21:45

Castelão, São Luís

Attendance: 4,826

Referee: Anderson Daronco (Rio Grande do Sul)

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ABC	1–1	Sampaio Corrêa
Erivélton 83'	Report	Fernando Sobral 79' (pen.)

28 June 2018

21:45

Frasqueirão, Natal

Attendance: 3,387

Referee: Péricles Bassols Pegado Cortez (Pernambuco)

Sampaio Corrêa won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the finals.

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Ceará	0–1	Bahia
	Report	Élber 61'

21 June 2018

21:45

Castelão, Fortaleza

Attendance: 13,894

Referee: Ricardo Marques (Minas Gerais)

---

Bahia	0–0	Ceará
	Report

26 June 2018

21:45

Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador

Attendance: 16,052

Referee: Denis da Silva Ribeiro Serafim (Alagoas)

Bahia won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the finals.

Finals

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Host
1	Bahia	10	6	2	2	14	6	+8	20	2nd leg
2	Sampaio Corrêa	10	4	5	1	12	4	+8	17	1st leg

Source: CBF

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sampaio Corrêa	1–0	Bahia	1–0	0–0

Sampaio Corrêa	1–0	Bahia
Uilliam 1'	Report

4 July 2018

21:45

Castelão, São Luís

Attendance: 18,021

Referee: Luiz César de Oliveira Magalhães (Ceará)

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Bahia	0–0	Sampaio Corrêa
	Report

7 July 2018

17:45

Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador

Attendance: 45,378

Referee: Pablo Ramon Gonçalves Pinheiro (Rio Grande do Norte)

2018 Copa do Nordeste Champions
Sampaio Corrêa 1st title

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Arthur Cabral	Ceará	5
	Yago	Vitória
3	Edigar Junio	Bahia	4
	Matheus Matias	ABC
	Neto Baiano	CRB
	Uilliam	Sampaio Corrêa
7	Edson Ratinho	CRB	3
	Héricles	Santa Cruz
	Higor Leite	ABC
	Neilton	Vitória
	Robinho	Santa Cruz

Source:CBF^[11]

2018 Copa do Nordeste team

The 2018 Copa do Nordeste team was a squad consisting of the eleven most impressive players at the tournament.^[12]

Pos. Player Team GK Andrey a Sampaio Corrêa DF Nino Paraíba Bahia DF Joécio Sampaio Corrêa DF Maracás Sampaio Corrêa DF Alyson Sampaio Corrêa MF Fernando Sobral Sampaio Corrêa MF Régis Bahia MF João Paulo Sampaio Corrêa MF Marlon Sampaio Corrêa FW Arthur Cabral b Ceará FW Uilliam Sampaio Corrêa Head coach Roberto Fonseca Sampaio Corrêa a.^ Best player b.^ Top scorer (shared with Yago)

Andrey Joécio Maracás Nino Paraíba Alyson Fernando Sobral Régis João Paulo Marlon Arthur Cabral Uilliam

Head coach Roberto Fonseca