1998 Copa Mercosur

The Copa Mercosur 1998 was the 1st staging of the international club cup.

The competition started on 29 July 1998 and concluded on 29 December 1998 with Palmeiras beating Cruzeiro in the final.

Participants

• Boca Juniors
• San Lorenzo
• Independiente
• Vélez Sársfield
• River Plate
• Racing Club
• Vasco da Gama
• Flamengo
• Corinthians
• Cruzeiro
• São Paulo
• Palmeiras
• Grêmio
• Colo Colo
• Universidad Católica
• Universidad de Chile
• Cerro Porteño
• Olimpia
• Nacional
• Peñarol

Details

• The 20 teams were divided into 5 groups of 4 teams. Each team plays othe other teams in the group twice. The top team from each group qualified for the quarter-finals along with the best 3 runners up.
• From the quarter finals to the final, two legs were played in each round. In the result of a draw, the match was decided by a penalty shoot out.

Group stage

Group A

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Cruzeiro	10	6	3	1	2	15	7	+8
San Lorenzo	10	6	3	1	2	11	8	+3
São Paulo	7	6	2	1	3	8	12	-4
Colo Colo	7	6	2	1	3	5	12	-7

Group B

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Palmeiras	18	6	6	0	0	16	3	+13
Nacional	9	6	3	0	3	10	14	-4
Independiente	6	6	2	0	4	12	15	-3
Universidad de Chile	3	6	1	0	5	7	13	-6

Group C

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Racing Club	14	6	4	2	0	9	4	+5
Olimpia	10	6	3	1	2	13	12	+1
Corinthians	5	6	1	2	3	7	8	-1
Peñarol	3	6	0	3	3	6	11	-5

Group D

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Vélez Sársfield	11	6	3	2	1	7	6	+1
Boca Juniors	9	6	3	0	3	11	7	+4
Flamengo	9	6	3	0	3	7	8	-1
Cerro Porteño	5	6	1	2	3	9	13	-4

Group E

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
River Plate	9	6	2	3	1	8	7	+1
Vasco da Gama	9	6	2	3	1	4	3	+1
Grêmio	7	6	2	1	3	10	9	+1
Universidad Católica	6	6	1	3	2	6	9	-3

Quarter-finals

First leg

1998-10-29	Palmeiras	3 – 1	Boca Juniors
	Almir  27' Arílson  48' Magrão  89'		Rey  51' (p)

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1998-10-28	River Plate	1 – 2	Cruzeiro
	Gallardo  78' (p)		Marcelo  32' Fábio Júnior  71'

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1998-10-27	Vélez Sársfield	3 – 4	Olimpia
	Husaín  19' Pandolfi  70' Bassedas  74'		Caballero  27' González  55' Santa Cruz  65' Paredes  89'

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1998-10-29	San Lorenzo	0 – 0	Racing Club

Second leg

1998-11-05	Boca Juniors	1 – 1	Palmeiras
	Palermo  58'		Alex  80'

Palmeiras won 4–2 on aggregate.

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1998-11-05	Cruzeiro	2 – 0	River Plate
	Fábio Júnior  36' Gilberto  83'

Cruzeiro won 4–1 on aggregate.

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1998-11-04	Olimpia	2 – 1	Vélez Sársfield
	Santa Cruz  24'  40'		Camps  65'

Olimpia won 6–4 on aggregate.

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1998-11-05	Racing Club	1 – 1	San Lorenzo
	Delgado  71' (p) Acosta  75'

1-1 on aggregate. San Lorenzo won 2-0 on penalties.

Semi-finals

First leg

1998-11-10	Palmeiras	2 – 0	Olimpia
	Alex  45'  49'

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1998-11-19	Cruzeiro	1 – 0	San Lorenzo
	Alex Alves  19'

Second leg

1998-11-17	Olimpia	0 – 1	Palmeiras
			Oséas  19'

Match abandoned after 69 minutes due to crowd trouble. Result allowed to stand. Palmeiras won 3–0 on aggregate.

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1998-12-02	San Lorenzo	1 – 1	Cruzeiro
	Basavilbazo  38'		Djair  63'

Cruzeiro won 2-1 on aggregate.

Final

First leg

1998-12-16	Cruzeiro	2 – 1	Palmeiras	Mineirão, Belo Horizonte Attendance: 40,000 Referee: Sidrack Marinho
	Marcelo  21' Fábio Júnior  90' (p)		Roque Júnior  44'

Second leg

1998-12-26	Palmeiras	3 – 1	Cruzeiro	Parque Antárctica, São Paulo Attendance: 49,400 Referee: Claudio Vinicius Cerdeira
	Cléber  7' Oséas  54' Paulo Nunes		Fábio Júnior  2' (p)

Play Off

1998-12-29	Palmeiras	1 – 0	Cruzeiro	Parque Antárctica, São Paulo Referee: Luciano Almeida
	Arce  62'

Copa Mercosur 1998 Winner
Palmeiras First Title

References

• - Copa Mercosur 1998