2018 U-20 Copa Libertadores

The 2018 U-20 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores (Spanish: Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub-20 2018) was the 4th edition of the U-20 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the U-20 Copa Libertadores), South America's premier under-20 club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in Uruguay from 10 to 24 February 2018.

2018 U-20 Copa Libertadores

Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub-20 Uruguay 2018
Tournament details
Host country	Uruguay
City	Montevideo
Dates	10–24 February 2018
Teams	12 (from 10 associations)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Nacional (1st title)
Runners-up	Independiente del Valle
Third place	River Plate
Fourth place	São Paulo
Tournament statistics
Matches played	22
Goals scored	77 (3.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Stiven Plaza (7 goals)
← 2016 2020 →

Nacional defeated Independiente del Valle in the final to win their first title, while River Plate defeated defending champions São Paulo to finish third.

Teams

The competition was contested by 12 teams: the title holders, the youth champions from each of the ten CONMEBOL member associations, and one additional team from the host association.

Players must be born on or after 1 January 1998.^[1]

Association	Team	Qualifying method	Participation	Previous best result
Argentina	Talleres	2017 Torneo Juvenil de Cuarta División (U-20) champions[2]	1st	—
Bolivia	Quebracho	2017 U-19 Torneo Nacional champions[3]	1st	—
Brazil	São Paulo	2016 U-20 Copa Libertadores champions	2nd	Champions (2016)
	Cruzeiro	2017 U-20 Supercopa de Brasil champions[4]	1st	—
Chile	Colo-Colo	2017 U-19 Copa de Campeones champions[5]	1st	—
Colombia	La Equidad	2017 U-20 Súper Copa Juvenil champions[6]	1st	—
Ecuador	Independiente del Valle	2017 U-18 Serie A champions[7]	4th	Quarterfinals (2011)
Paraguay	Libertad	2017 play-off winners between U-20 Apertura and Clausura champions[8]	3rd	Quarterfinals (2011)
Peru	Sport Huancayo	2017 Torneo de Promoción y Reserva champions[9]	1st	—
Uruguay (hosts)	Nacional	2017 U-19 Campeonato Uruguayo champions[10]	2nd	Quarterfinals (2011)
	River Plate	2017 U-19 Campeonato Uruguayo runners-up[10]	1st	—
Venezuela	Atlético Venezuela	2017 U-20 Serie Oro champions[11]	1st	—

Venues

The tournament was played at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.

Draw

The draw was held on 25 January 2018, 16:00 UYT (UTC−3), at the headquarters of the Uruguayan Football Association.^[12][13] The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four. The defending champions São Paulo were automatically seeded into Pot 1 and allocated to position A1 in the group stage, while the other two teams which also participated in the 2016 U-20 Copa Libertadores, Independiente del Valle and Libertad, were also seeded into Pot 1 and drawn to position B1 or C1 in the group stage. The remaining teams were seeded into Pot 2, and drawn to positions 2, 3 or 4 of groups A, B or C in the group stage. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.^[14]

Pot 1	Pot 2
São Paulo (Position A1) Independiente del Valle Libertad	Talleres Quebracho Cruzeiro Colo-Colo La Equidad Sport Huancayo Nacional River Plate Atlético Venezuela

Group stage

In the group stage, the teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 20):^[1]

1. Goal difference;
2. Goals scored;
3. Head-to-head result in games between tied teams;
4. Penalty shoot-out (between two teams playing against each other in the last match of the group)
5. Drawing of lots.

The winners of each group and the best runner-up among all groups advanced to the semi-finals.

All times local, UYT (UTC−3).^[15]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	São Paulo	3	2	1	0	13	2	+11	7	Semi-finals
2	Talleres	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7
3	Atlético Venezuela	3	1	0	2	4	10	−6	3
4	Quebracho	3	0	0	3	1	11	−10	0

Source: CONMEBOL

São Paulo	6–0	Quebracho
Jonas Toró 22', 37' Gabriel Novaes 32', 58' Gabriel Sara 49' Fabinho 80'	Report

10 February 2018 (2018-02-10)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)

Atlético Venezuela	0–3	Talleres
	Report	Nahuel Bustos 7', 48', 59'

10 February 2018 (2018-02-10)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Nicolás Gallo (Colombia)

---

São Paulo	6–1	Atlético Venezuela
Helinho 11' Igor Gomes 60' Jonas Toró 68', 83' Rodrigo 85' (pen.) Bruno Dip 88'	Report	Yeangel Montero 64'

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Luis Garay (Peru)

Quebracho	0–2	Talleres
	Report	Mauro Valiente 45'+1' Nahuel Bustos 51'

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: César Deischler (Chile)

---

Talleres	1–1	São Paulo
Marcos Arturia 75'	Report	Igor Liziero 61'

16 February 2018 (2018-02-16)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: José Natanael Méndez (Paraguay)

Quebracho	1–3	Atlético Venezuela
Mauricio Paz 18'	Report	Robin Ramos 43', 45'+2', 58'

16 February 2018 (2018-02-16)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	River Plate (H)	3	2	1	0	2	0	+2	7	Semi-finals
2	Libertad	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5
3	La Equidad	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
4	Cruzeiro	3	0	0	3	2	6	−4	0

Source: CONMEBOL
(H) Hosts

Libertad	3–1	Cruzeiro
Jonathan Valiente 45' Álvaro Recalade 66' Jesús Amarilla 84'	Report	Vitinho 41'

11 February 2018 (2018-02-11)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Fernando Echenique (Argentina)

River Plate	1–0	La Equidad
Facundo Vigo 78'	Report

11 February 2018 (2018-02-11)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Guillermo Guerrero (Ecuador)

---

Libertad	0–0	River Plate
	Report

14 February 2018 (2018-02-14)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Alexis Herrera (Venezuela)

Cruzeiro	1–2	La Equidad
Vitinho 4'	Report	Andrés de Armas 35' Juan Marín 56'

14 February 2018 (2018-02-14)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Ivo Méndez (Bolivia)

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La Equidad	2–2	Libertad
Cristian Barrios 47' César Castaño 67' (pen.)	Report	Esteban Maidana 49' Jonathan Valiente 84' (pen.)

17 February 2018 (2018-02-17)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Rodolpho Toski Marques (Brazil)

Cruzeiro	0–1	River Plate
	Report	Facundo Vigo 11'

17 February 2018 (2018-02-17)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: César Deischler (Chile)

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Nacional (H)	3	2	1	0	13	0	+13	7	Semi-finals
2	Independiente del Valle	3	2	1	0	11	1	+10	7
3	Colo-Colo	3	1	0	2	2	10	−8	3
4	Sport Huancayo	3	0	0	3	1	16	−15	0

Source: CONMEBOL
(H) Hosts

Independiente del Valle	6–1	Sport Huancayo
Plaza 29', 48', 80', 82' Guerrero 70' Renny Jaramillo 79'	Report	Samuel Perlaza 75' (o.g.)

12 February 2018 (2018-02-12)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: José Natanael Méndez (Paraguay)

Colo-Colo	0–5	Nacional
	Report	May 17', 29', 50' Vecino 38' Ocampo 85'

12 February 2018 (2018-02-12)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Rodolpho Toski Marques (Brazil)

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Independiente del Valle	5–0	Colo-Colo
Guerrero 14' Williams Alarcón 34' (o.g.) Plaza 67', 69', 90'+1'	Report

15 February 2018 (2018-02-15)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Fernando Echenique (Argentina)

Sport Huancayo	0–8	Nacional
	Report	May 3' Vecino 38', 84' Trasante 42' Trezza 45' Sanabria 66' Sebastián Paz 78' Gabriel Barrios 80'

15 February 2018 (2018-02-15)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Nicolás Gallo (Colombia)

---

Nacional	0–0	Independiente del Valle
	Report

18 February 2018 (2018-02-18)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Alexis Herrera (Venezuela)

Sport Huancayo	0–2	Colo-Colo
	Report	Salas 45', 61'

18 February 2018 (2018-02-18)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Guillermo Guerrero (Ecuador)

Ranking of group runners-up

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	C	Independiente del Valle	3	2	1	0	11	1	+10	7	Semi-finals
2	A	Talleres	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7
3	B	Libertad	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5

Source: CONMEBOL
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Drawing of lots (Regulations Article 21).^[1]

Knockout stage

The semi-final matchups were:

• Group A winner vs. Group C winner
• Group B winner vs. Best runner-up

The semi-final winners and losers played in the final and third place match respectively. If tied after full time, extra time was not played, and the penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 22).^[1]

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	21 February – Centenario
	São Paulo	0
					24 February – Centenario
	Nacional	3
					Nacional	2
	21 February – Centenario
					Independiente del Valle	1
	River Plate	2
	Independiente del Valle	3
					Third place
					24 February – Centenario
					São Paulo	1 (4)
					River Plate (p)	1 (5)

Semi-finals

São Paulo	0–3	Nacional
	Report	Laborda 31' May 73' Gabriel Barrios 90'+2'

21 February 2018 (2018-02-21)

16:30

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Fernando Echenique (Argentina)

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River Plate	2–3	Independiente del Valle
Neris 51' Vigo 53'	Report	Renny Jaramillo 40', 75' Gonzalo Plata 73'

21 February 2018 (2018-02-21)

18:45

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Ivo Méndez (Bolivia)

Third place match

São Paulo	1–1	River Plate
Walce Da Silva 90'	Report	Cristian Martín 20'
Penalties
Rodrigo Walce Igor Gomes Oliveira Fabinho	4–5	Aaron Borges Juan Pablo Plada Santiago Pérez Diego Vicente Vigo

24 February 2018 (2018-02-24)

14:15^{[note 1]}

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Alexis Herrera (Venezuela)

Final

Nacional	2–1	Independiente del Valle
Ocampo 44' Johao Chávez 47' (o.g.)	Report	Guerrero 45' (pen.)

24 February 2018 (2018-02-24)

16:30^{[note 1]}

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Referee: Nicolás Gallo (Colombia)

Notes

1. The Third place match and Final match were originally scheduled on 24 February 2018, 16:30 and 18:45 local time, but were re-scheduled to 14:15 and 16:30 local time.^[16]