The 62nd edition of the Copa Libertadores begins to be played: Conmebol will raffle in the city of Luque the initial phases of the most important tournament on a continental level and will leave the board established for what will be the draw on April 16 that will organize the group stage.
Phase 1, which will begin in late February, will bring together Guaraní from Paraguay, Caracas from Venezuela, Catholic University from Ecuador, Cesar Vallejos University from Peru, Royal Pari from Bolivia and a team that still needs to be defined in Uruguayan soccer. Today it will be known how the confrontations will be.
The three winners will access the Phase 2, where they wait San Lorenzo from Argentina, National Athletic from Colombia, Freedom from Paraguay, Independent of the Valley from Ecuador, Junior from Colombia, Bolivar from Bolivia, Deportivo Lara from Venezuela and Ayacucho from Peru. At the same time, you need to know two teams from Brazil, two from Chile Y one from Uruguay, which will qualify in the coming days from their respective local tournaments.
While the Phase 3, which will define the qualifiers for the group stage, will develop the weeks of April 7 and 14. Two days after that last date, the draw will take place that will clarify how the zone instance will be played in the tournament with the 32 classified teams.
The teams of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Copa Libertadores
It should be noted that although in several countries it is still necessary to define all of those classified for the contest, in Argentina it is already known that River, Boca, Defense and Justice, Racing, Argentinos Juniors, Velez and the mentioned San Lorenzo They are the ones who will represent the country in the competition.
• EQUIPMENT ALREADY CLASSIFIED: Palmeiras (Brazil), Internacional (Brazil), Flamengo (Brazil), Boca (Argentina), River (Argentina), Defensa y Justicia (Argentina), Racing (Argentina), Argentinos Juniors (Argentina), Vélez (Argentina), America de Cali (Colombia), Independiente Santa Fe (Colombia), Universidad Católica (Chile), Unión La Calera (Chile), Always Ready (Bolivia), The Strongest (Bolivia), Barcelona (Ecuador), Liga de Quito (Ecuador), Cerro Porteño (Paraguay), Olimpia (Paraguay), Sporting Cristal (Peru), Universitario (Peru), Deportivo La Guaira (Venezuela) and Deportivo Táchira (Venezuela).
* Interancional, Flamengo, Universidad Católica de Chile and Unión La Calera are classified to the tournament, but they could play Phase 3 depending on the results of their local competitions
THE LIBERTADORES CALENDAR
• Phase 1 (24/2 al 3/3) – Phase 2 (10/3 al 17/3) – Phase 3 (7/4 al 14/4)
• Group stage draw: April 16th
• Group stage: from April 21 to May 26
• Round of 16 (14/7 al 21/7) – Quarter finals (11/8 al 18/8) – Semifinals (22/9 al 29/9) – Single Final (20/11)
SOUTH AMERICAN DRAW
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Defense and Justice was the last champion of the South American, which from this year will have group stage (Photo: Reuters)
Starting this season, the South American Cup will also have group stage. For this reason, in this draw the crosses prior to that instance were also known: 32 teams will face each other in hand-to-hand duels against another from the same federation to access the group zone, where the only classifieds are the Argentine and Brazilian clubs.
Initially, there will be back-and-forth crossings between four teams from the same federation to define the two classified by country for the group stage. Taking into account that Chile Y Uruguay They have not yet defined their four teams for this instance, the draw determined the following for the preliminary phase:
Bolivian crosses: National Potosí vs. Guabirá / Atlético Palma Flor vs. Jorge Wilstermann
Chile crosses: Chile 4 vs. Chile 2 / Chile 1 vs. Chile 3
Crosses of Colombia: Deportivo Cali vs. Sports Tolima / Deportivo Pasto vs. Equity
Ecuador crosses: Emelec vs. Macará / Guayaquil City vs. Aucas
Crosses of Paraguay: National vs. October 12 / River Plate vs. Guaireña
Peru crosses: Sport Huancayo vs. Cajamarca University / Melgar vs. Carlos Manucci
Uruguay crosses: Uruguay 4 vs. Uruguay 2 / Uruguay 1 vs. Uruguay 3
Venezuela crosses: Puerto Cabello vs. Metropolitans / Miners vs. Aragua
For now, and while Brazil waits to define their qualifiers, the only clubs that already have their ticket to the group zone are the Argentines: Independent, Rosario Central, Newell’s, Cordoba workshops, Lanús Y Sarandí Arsenal.
All the preliminary phase matches will take place between the March 17 and April 7. The qualifiers will access the group stage, which will also feature the four losing clubs from Phase 3 of the Copa Libertadores.
That is to say: 32 teams from the group zone will come out of the 16 winners of the preliminary duels, the 4 eliminated of Phase 3 of the Libertadores, the 6 directly classified from Argentina and the 6 directly classified from Brazil.
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The teams classified to the preliminary phase of the South American Cup
Draw schedule: 12.00 (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil) / 11.00 (Venezuela and Bolivia) / 10.00 (Colombia, Peru and Ecuador)
Television: DirecTV Sports, ESPN Y Facebook Watch
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