2023 Copa do Nordeste

The 2023 Copa do Nordeste was the 20th edition of the main football tournament featuring teams from the Brazilian Northeast Region. The competition features 16 clubs, with Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco having two seeds each, and Alagoas, Maranhão, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe with one seed each. Four teams were decided by a qualifying tournament (Eliminatórias Copa do Nordeste 2023). The Copa do Nordeste began on 21 January and ended on 3 May 2023.

2023 Copa do Nordeste

Tournament details
Country	Brazil
Dates	21 January – 3 May
Teams	16
Final positions
Champions	Ceará (3rd title)
Runner-up	Sport
2024 Copa do Brasil	Ceará
Tournament statistics
Matches played	72
Goals scored	198 (2.75 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Three players (5 goals each)
← 2022 2024 → All statistics correct as of 3 May 2023.

Fortaleza are the defending champions.

Format

In this season, 12 teams (9 state league champions and best placed teams in the 2022 CBF ranking from Ceará, Bahia and Pernambuco) gained direct entries into the group stage while the other four berths were decided by the Eliminatórias Copa do Nordeste.^[1]

For the group stage, the 16 teams were drawn into two groups. Each team will play once against the eight clubs from the other group. Top four teams will qualify for the final stages. Quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played on a single-leg basis and finals will be played on a home-and-away two-legged basis.^[2]

Qualification

Main article: 2023 Copa do Nordeste qualification

The 2023 Copa do Nordeste qualification (officially the Eliminatórias Copa do Nordeste 2023) was the qualifying tournament of the 2023 Copa do Nordeste. It was played from 5 to 8 January 2023. Sixteen teams competed to decide four places in the Copa do Nordeste. The teams entered in two rounds where the four winners advanced to the Copa do Nordeste.^[3]

The winners were CSA (Alagoas), Ferroviário (Ceará), Santa Cruz (Pernambuco) and Vitória (Bahia).^[4]

Teams

The qualified teams are^[5]

Association	Team	Qualification method
Alagoas 1 + 1 berths	CRB	2022 Campeonato Alagoano champions
	CSA	2023 Copa do Nordeste qualification
Bahia 2 + 1 berths	Atlético de Alagoinhas	2022 Campeonato Baiano champions
	Bahia	best placed team in the 2022 CBF ranking not already qualified
	Vitória	2023 Copa do Nordeste qualification
Ceará 2 + 1 berths	Fortaleza	2022 Campeonato Cearense champions
	Ceará	best placed team in the 2022 CBF ranking not already qualified
	Ferroviário	2023 Copa do Nordeste qualification
Maranhão 1 berth	Sampaio Corrêa	2022 Campeonato Maranhense champions
Paraíba 1 berth	Campinense	2022 Campeonato Paraibano champions
Pernambuco 2 + 1 berths	Náutico	2022 Campeonato Pernambucano champions
	Sport	best placed team in the 2022 CBF ranking not already qualified
	Santa Cruz	2023 Copa do Nordeste qualification
Piauí 1 berth	Fluminense-PI	2022 Campeonato Piauiense champions
Rio Grande do Norte 1 berth	ABC	2022 Campeonato Potiguar champions
Sergipe 1 berth	Sergipe	2022 Campeonato Sergipano champions

Schedule

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

Stage	First leg	Second leg
Group Stage	Round 1: 22 January
	Round 2: 5 February
	Round 3: 15 February
	Round 4: 18 February
	Round 5: 22 February and 1 March
	Round 6: 5 March
	Round 7: 8 and 15 March
	Round 8: 22 March
Quarter-finals	26 March
Semi-finals	29 March
Finals	19 April	3 May

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 21 November 2022, 15:30, at the CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.^[7] The teams (excluding the four teams from the qualification tournament) were seeded into three pots based on the 2022 CBF ranking (shown in parentheses). They were drawn into two groups of eight containing two teams from each of the three pots with the restriction that teams from the same federation could not be drawn into the same group.

Group stage draw

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Fortaleza (11) Bahia (12) Ceará (13) Sport (21)	CRB (28) Sampaio Corrêa (32) Náutico (38) ABC (47)	Campinense (72) Sergipe (90) Atlético de Alagoinhas (97) Fluminense-PI (no rank)

The four teams from the qualification tournament will be drawn according to the position of their federation in the CBF state ranking with the restriction that teams from the same federation can not be drawn into the same group. If there are three or more qualified teams from the same federation, the two best teams in the CBF ranking will be allocated in different groups.

Group stage

For the group stage, the 16 teams were drawn into two groups of eight teams each. Each team will play on a single round-robin tournament against the eight clubs from the other group. The top four teams of each group will advance to the quarter-finals of the knockout stages. The teams will be 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 will be used to determine the ranking: 1. Wins; 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Fewest red cards; 5. Fewest yellow cards; 6. Draw in the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (Regulations Article 13).^[2]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sport	8	6	1	1	19	5	+14	19	Advance to Quarter-finals
2	Fortaleza	8	6	0	2	15	5	+10	18
3	Ferroviário	8	3	4	1	15	11	+4	13
4	CRB	8	3	4	1	7	7	0	13
5	Sampaio Corrêa	8	2	3	3	7	11	−4	9
6	Atlético de Alagoinhas	8	2	0	6	6	16	−10	6
7	Vitória	8	1	3	4	10	13	−3	6
8	Fluminense-PI	8	0	3	5	7	18	−11	3

Source: CBF

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ceará	8	5	1	2	16	11	+5	16	Advance to Quarter-finals
2	ABC	8	4	2	2	13	6	+7	14
3	Náutico	8	4	1	3	12	11	+1	13
4	Sergipe	8	3	2	3	12	8	+4	11
5	Santa Cruz	8	2	3	3	10	13	−3	9
6	Bahia	8	2	3	3	9	15	−6	9
7	Campinense	8	2	2	4	8	12	−4	8
8	CSA	8	1	4	3	6	10	−4	7

Source: CBF

Results

Home \ Away ABC BAH CAM CEA CSA NAU SAN SER Atlético de Alagoinhas 1–2 2–1 1–0 0–1 CRB 1–0 1–1 2–1 1–0 Ferroviário 2–2 3–0 2–1 0–0 Fluminense-PI 1–1 1–2 2–5 0–0 Fortaleza 2–0 3–0 2–1 1–0 Sampaio Corrêa 1–0 1–1 1–1 1–0 Sport 2–0 6–0 0–0 2–1 Vitória 1–1 2–0 2–3 1–1

Home \ Away ATL CRB FER FLU FOR SAM SPO VIT ABC 3–0 3–0 2–0 2–0 Bahia 3–0 2–2 0–3 1–1 Campinense 0–0 2–3 0–2 2–1 Ceará 3–1 2–0 2–0 3–2 CSA 0–0 1–1 1–3 3–1 Náutico 2–2 3–2 2–0 0–2 Santa Cruz 2–1 2–2 0–4 3–1 Sergipe 4–0 3–1 2–2 2–1

Source:CBF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Final stages

Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams played a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:^[2]

• Quarter-finals and semi-finals were played on a single-leg basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the leg.
  • If tied, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 17).
• Finals were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg.
  • If tied on aggregate, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 17).
• Extra time would not be played and away goals rule would not be used in final stages.

Starting from the semi-finals, the teams were seeded according to their performance in the tournament. The teams were 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. Overall goals scored; 4. Fewest red cards in the tournament; 5. Fewest yellow cards in the tournament; 6. Draw in the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (Regulations Article 18).^[2]

Bracket

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Finals
		Fortaleza	4
		Ferroviário	0
							Fortaleza	2
							Ceará	3
		Ceará	3
		Sergipe	1
												Ceará (p)	2	0	2 (4)
												Sport	1	1	2 (2)
		Sport	4
		CRB	0
							Sport	1
							ABC	0
		ABC	3
		Náutico	1

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Sport	4–0	CRB
ABC	3–1	Náutico
Ceará	3–1	Sergipe
Fortaleza	4–0	Ferroviário

Group C

Sport	4–0	CRB
Jorginho 32' Luciano Juba 58' Igor Cariús 77' Edinho 87'	Report

26 March 2023

18:00

Estádio Ilha do Retiro, Recife

Referee: Diego Pombo Lopez (Bahia)

Group D

ABC	3–1	Náutico
Felipe Garcia 13', 77' Souza 45+3' (o.g.)	Report	Tagarela 87'

26 March 2023

15:30

Frasqueirão, Natal

Referee: Léo Simão Holanda (Ceará)

Group E

Ceará	3–1	Sergipe
Erick 16' Álvaro 45+2' Luvannor 90'	Report	Pedro Henrique 38'

26 March 2023

18:00

Castelão, Fortaleza

Referee: Caio Max Augusto Vieira (Rio Grande do Norte)

Group F

Fortaleza	4–0	Ferroviário
Lucero 4', 6' Hércules 43' Thiago Galhardo 71'	Report

25 March 2023

16:30

Castelão, Fortaleza

Referee: Rodrigo José Pereira de Lima (Pernambuco)

Semi-finals

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Host
1	Sport	9	7	1	1	23	5	+18	22	Host
4	ABC	9	5	2	2	16	7	+9	17
2	Fortaleza	9	7	0	2	19	5	+14	21	Host
3	Ceará	9	6	1	2	19	12	+7	19

Source: CBF

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Sport	1–0	ABC
Fortaleza	2–3	Ceará

Group G

Sport	1–0	ABC
Vágner Love 1'	Report

29 March 2023^a

21:30

Estádio Ilha do Retiro, Recife

Referee: Dênis da Silva Ribeiro Serafim (Alagoas)

a.^ Match suspended in the 61st minute due to rain. The remaining 29 minutes were played on 30 March 2023 at 19:00.

Group H

Fortaleza	2–3	Ceará
Calebe 30' Lucero 63'	Report	Erick 12' (pen.) Caíque 33' Titi 46' (o.g.)

29 March 2023

21:30

Castelão, Fortaleza

Referee: Marcelo de Lima Henrique (Ceará)

Finals

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Host
1	Sport	10	8	1	1	24	5	+19	25	2nd leg
2	Ceará	10	7	1	2	22	14	+8	22	1st leg

Source: CBF

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ceará	2–2 (4–2 p)	Sport	2–1	0–1

Group I

Ceará	2–1	Sport
Guilherme Castilho 1' Vitor Gabriel 45'	Report	David Ricardo 90+7' (o.g.)

19 April 2023

21:30

Castelão, Fortaleza

Referee: Caio Max Augusto Vieira (Rio Grande do Norte)

---

Sport	1–0	Ceará
Luciano Juba 26'	Report
Penalties
Luciano Juba Vágner Love Sabino Gabriel Santos	2–4	Danilo Barcelos Jean Carlos Guilherme Castilho Luvannor Erick

3 May 2023

21:00

Estádio Ilha do Retiro, Recife

Referee: Dênis da Silva Ribeiro Serafim (Alagoas)

2023 Copa do Nordeste Champions
Ceará 3rd title