2025 Copa Sudamericana

The 2025 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 24th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the Copa Sudamericana), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The competition began on 4 March and ended on 22 November 2025, with the final played at Estadio Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, Paraguay.^[1] Although Estadio Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia was originally selected as the host stadium for the final match,^[2][3] CONMEBOL confirmed the change of host city on 11 September 2025, due to delays in the works to adapt the stadium to host the event.^[4]

Argentine club Lanús were the champions, winning their second Copa Sudamericana title after defeating Brazilian side Atlético Mineiro 5–4 on kicks from the penalty mark following a 0–0 draw after extra time in the final.^[5] As winners of the 2025 Copa Sudamericana, Lanús earned the right to play against the winners of the 2025 Copa Libertadores in the 2026 Recopa Sudamericana. They also automatically qualified for the 2026 Copa Libertadores group stage.

Argentine club Racing were the titleholders, but they did not defend their title since they qualified for the 2025 Copa Libertadores group stage as Copa Sudamericana champions and advanced to the knockout stage of that competition.

The following 44 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament:

• Argentina and Brazil: 6 berths each
• All other associations: 4 berths each

The entry stage is determined as follows:^[6][7]

• Group stage: 12 teams (teams from Argentina and Brazil)
• First stage: 32 teams (teams from all other associations)

A further 12 teams eliminated from the 2025 Copa Libertadores were transferred to the Copa Sudamericana, entering the group stage and the knockout round play-offs.

The schedule of the competition is as follows:^[17]

The draw for the first stage was held on 19 December 2024, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.^[21][22]

For the first stage, the 32 teams involved were divided into eight pots according to their national association. The 32 teams were drawn into 16 ties, with the four teams from each national association being drawn against a rival from the same association in two ties per association. The first team drawn in each tie hosted the match.^[23]

The draw for the group stage was held on 17 March 2025, 20:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.^[24][25]

Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL Clubs ranking as of 16 December 2024 (shown in parentheses),^[26] taking into account the following three factors:^[27]

1. Performance in the last 10 years, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 2015–2024.
2. Historical coefficient, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 1960–2014 and 2002–2014 respectively.
3. Local tournament champion, with bonus points awarded to domestic league champions of the last 10 years.

For the group stage, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups (Groups A–H) of four containing a team from each of the four pots. The four losers of the Copa Libertadores third stage were seeded into Pot 4. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.^[28]

Notes

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 2 June 2025, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3) at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay.^[29] For the round of 16, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (A–H) between a Copa Sudamericana group winner (Pot 1) and a knockout round play-offs winner (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 (Regulations Article 2.2.3.2).^[7][30]

In the first stage, each tie was played on a single-leg basis, with the winner being decided in a penalty shoot-out in case of a draw after 90 minutes.^[7]

The 16 winners of the first stage advanced to the group stage to join the 12 teams directly qualified for that stage (six from Argentina and six from Brazil), and four teams transferred from the Copa Libertadores (the four teams eliminated in the third stage of qualifying).

In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. Teams were ranked according to the following criteria: 1. Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss); 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Away goals scored; 5. CONMEBOL ranking (Regulations Article 2.4.2).^[7]

The winners of each group advanced to the round of 16 of the final stages, whilst the runners-up of each group advanced to the knockout round play-offs of the final stages.

Starting from the knockout round play-offs, the teams play a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:^[7]

• In the knockout round play-offs, round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg (Regulations Article 2.2.3). If tied on aggregate, extra time will not be played, and a penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 2.4.4).
• The final is played as a single match at a venue pre-selected by CONMEBOL, with the higher-seeded team designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes (Regulations Article 2.2.6). If tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time will be played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 2.4.5).

For the final stages, the teams were seeded according to their results in the group stage, with the Copa Sudamericana group winners seeded 1–8, the Copa Sudamericana group runners-up seeded 9–16, and the Copa Libertadores group third-placed teams seeded 17–24. For the round of 16 draw, the seeds 1–8 made up Pot 1, and the eight knockout round play-offs winners (seeds 9–24) made up Pot 2, keeping their seed. Teams from the same association may play each other from the knockout round play-offs onwards.

The bracket was decided based on the round of 16 draw, which was held on 2 June 2025.^[31]

Source: CONMEBOL

• 2025 Copa Libertadores

• CONMEBOL Sudamericana
• CONMEBOL.com