Copa Libertadores 2008

Infobox International Football Competition
tourney_name = Copa Libertadores
year = 2008
other_titles = Copa Santander Libertadores 2008


size = 100px
caption =
country =
dates = January 29 2008 – July 2 2008
num_teams = 38
confederations = 11
venues =
cities =
champion_other = flagicon|ECU LDU Quito
count = 1
second_other = flagicon|BRA Fluminense
third_other =
fourth_other =
matches = 138
goals = 358
attendance =
top_scorer = flagicon|PAR Salvador Cabañas and
flagicon|BOL Marcelo Moreno (8 goals)
player = flagicon|ECU Joffre Guerrón

The 2008 Copa Libertadores was the 49th edition of the Copa Libertadores, CONMEBOL's annual international club tournament. 38 teams qualified for this tournament and 6 of them were knocked-out in the preliminary round. Due to the competition's sponsorship by the Spanish Santander Bank, it will be known as the Copa Santander Libertadores for the next five years. [cite web |url=http://www.conmebol.com/articulos_ver.jsp?id=61423&slangab=E |title=Beginning 2008 it will be the Santander Libertadores Cup |publisher=conmebol.com |accessdate=2007-10-05 ] [The draw took place on December 19, 2007 in Asunción. |url=http://www.conmebol.com/articulos_ver.jsp?id=61727&slangab=E |title=The 2008 Santander Libertadores Cup is already in play |publisher=conmebol.com |accessdate=2007-12-21 ]

Qualified teams

38 teams qualified for this edition, with 26 teams directly qualifying to the group stage and 12 having to play in the preliminary round. Seven countries sent their Apertura winners and Clausura winners for their first two berths. The remaining berth, or berths in Argentina's case, went to the best-place finishers shown by an aggregate table. Brazil's league uses a European-style format and thus does not have an Apertura and Clausura tournament. Therefore, they sent their cup winner and the best four of the Brazilian Championship. Uruguay and Ecuador had a Mini-League ("Liguilla") to determine who qualify, and Mexico uses the InterLiga to determine two of its qualifiers. The last qualified team in each country played the Preliminary Round; the country who had a club win the previous edition (Argentina) had two teams in the Preliminary Round because the defending champion automatically qualifies.;Qualifying Methods

Preliminary round

The teams that have qualified for the preliminary round. A total of 12 teams played in a two-legged round. 6 teams qualified for the next round. "Team 1" played the first leg at home. The away goals rule was employed in this round. The preliminary round was played between January 29 and February 12.cite web |url=http://img.conmebol.com/csf/pub/articulo/2008/Prog_1aFase_Libertadores_08_v1.pdf |title=Match Schedule |publisher=conmebol.com |accessdate=2008-01-10 ]

Group Stage

A total of 26 teams qualified directly for this stage and 6 joined them from the preliminary round, making a total of 32 teams. The top two of each group qualified for the Round of 16. This stage was played between February 12 and April 23.

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, the teams played two games against each other on a home-and-away basis. The away goals rule was used during this stage but not in the final. If after 90 minutes of play during the 2nd leg the teams were still tied on goals, the teams then went onto a penalty shootout. Extra time was only used in the finals. The teams were seeded 1 to 8 (first placed teams of each group) and 9 to 16 (second placed teams of each group) and the ties were 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, etc. Higher seeded teams played at home during the second leg.

Qualified teams

Quarter-finals

The quarterfinals were played between May 14, 15 and May 21, 22.

emi-finals

The semifinals were played between May 27, 28 and June 3, 4.

Final

The first and second legs of the final were played on June 25 and July 2, respectively.

Top scorers

"Updated to games played 2008-06-26"

References