| Tourney Name: | Copa Libertadores Femenina |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Size: | 225 |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Associations: | 10 |
| Country: | Paraguay Uruguay (final match) |
| Champion Other: |  Corinthians |
| Count: | 3 |
| Second Other: |  Santa Fe |
| Third Other: | Ferroviária |
| Fourth Other: | Nacional |
| Matches: | 32 |
| Goals: | 102 |
| Top Scorer: | Tatiana Ariza Linda Caicedo Jheniffer Esperanza Pizarro Victória(4 goals each) |
| Prevseason: | 2020 |
| Nextseason: | 2022 |
The 2021 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina was the 13th edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina (also referred to as the Copa Libertadores Femenina), South America's premier women's club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.
The competition was initially scheduled to be played from 30 September to 16 October 2021 in Chile.[1] On 29 July 2021, CONMEBOL announced that although the other rounds would be played in Chile, the final match would be played at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay on 24 November 2021.[2] Thus, the final was to be played between the 2021 Copa Sudamericana and the men's 2021 Copa Libertadores finals that would also be played in Montevideo. The tournament organizers did not agree with this decision and on 3 August 2021 they communicated to CONMEBOL that Chile would not host the championship.[3] On 13 August 2021, CONMEBOL confirmed that the competition would be played from 3 to 21 November 2021, with Paraguay hosting the competition up to the third place play-off and the final being played at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.[4] Finally, on 10 September 2021, CONMEBOL announced that the final match was moved to the Estadio Gran Parque Central in Montevideo.[5] Ferroviária were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the semi-finals.
Corinthians (Brazil) defeated Santa Fe (Colombia) 2–0 to win their third title.[6] In the Final, VAR was used for the first time in a Copa Libertadores Femenina match.[7]
Alianza Lima became the first Peruvian team to qualify for the single-elimination stages.[8] After their elimination in the quarter-finals, Kindermann ended their partnership with Avaí and the team was disbanded in November 2021.[9] In January 2022 Avaí took control and assured the continuity of the team during 2022.[10]
For the group stage, the 16 teams were drawn into four groups. Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin basis, with the top two teams of each group advancing to the quarter-finals. Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams played a single-elimination tournament.[11]
The competition was contested by 16 teams:
| Association | Team | Qualifying method | data-sort-type="number" | Participation | Previous best result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Lorenzo | 2021 Torneo Apertura de Fútbol Femenino champions[12] | 2nd | data-sort-value=9 | Group stage (2009) | ||
| Real Tomayapo | 2021 Copa Simón Bolívar Femenina champions[13] | 1st | data-sort-value="17" | — | ||
| 2020 Copa Libertadores Femenina champions[14] | 5th | data-sort-value="1" | Champions (2015, 2020) | |||
| 2020 Campeonato Brasileiro Feminino A1 champions[15] | 4th | data-sort-value=1 | Champions (2017, 2019) | |||
| 2020 Campeonato Brasileiro Feminino A1 runners-up | 2nd | data-sort-value=9 | Group stage (2020) | |||
| 2020 Campeonato Femenino de Transición champions[16] | 3rd | data-sort-value=5 | Quarter-finals (2019, 2020) | |||
| 2020 Campeonato Femenino de Transición runners-up[17] | 2nd | data-sort-value=4 | Fourth place (2020) | |||
| 2021 Liga Femenina BetPlay DIMAYOR champions[18] | 1st | data-sort-value="17" | — | |||
| 2021 Liga Femenina BetPlay DIMAYOR runners-up | 3rd | data-sort-value=5 | Quarter-finals (2020) | |||
| Deportivo Cuenca | 2021 SuperLiga Femenina DirecTV champions[19] | 2nd | data-sort-value=5 | Quarter-finals (2019) | ||
(hosts) | 2021 Campeonato Femenino champions[20] | 7th | data-sort-value="3" | Third place (2014) | ||
| 2021 Campeonato Femenino runners-up[21] | 2nd | data-sort-value=9 | Group stage (2020) | |||
| 2021 Campeonato Femenino third place (Host association additional entry) | 2nd | data-sort-value=9 | Group stage (2017) | |||
| Alianza Lima | 2021 Liga Femenina FPF champions[22] | 1st | data-sort-value="17" | — | ||
| Nacional | 2020 Primera División "Torneo Rexona de Fútbol Femenino" champions[23] | 5th | data-sort-value=9 | Group stage (2011, 2012, 2013, 2016) | ||
| Yaracuyanos | 2021 Liga FUTVE Fem – Torneo de Adecuación champions[24] | 1st | data-sort-value="17" | — |
Matches in the competition were played at Estadio Manuel Ferreira and Estadio Arsenio Erico, both in Asunción, Paraguay, except for the final which was played at Estadio Gran Parque Central in Montevideo, Uruguay.[5]
On 21 September 2021, CONMEBOL announced the referees and assistant referees appointed for the tournament.[25]
| Association | Referees | Assistant referees | Support referees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laura Fortunato | Mariana de Almeida Daiana Milone | Salomé di Iorio | |
| Adriana Farfán | Inés Choque Maricela Urapuca | ||
| Edina Alves Batista | Neuza Back Leila Moreira | Daiane Muniz | |
| María Belén Carvajal | Loreto Toloza Cindy Nahuelcoy | ||
| María Victoria Daza | Mary Blanco Nataly Arteaga | ||
| Susana Corella | Mónica Amboya Viviana Segura | ||
| Zulma Quiñónez | Nancy Fernández Laura Miranda | ||
| Elizabeth Tintaya | Gabriela Moreno Mariana Aquino | ||
| Anahí Fernández | Adela Sánchez Daiana Fernández | ||
| Emikar Calderas | Migdalia Rodríguez Laura Cárdenas |
The draw for the tournament was held on 24 September 2021, 12:00 PYT (UTC−4), at the CONMEBOL Convention Center in Luque, Paraguay.[5] [26] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four.
Two teams were directly assigned to the head of groups A and B.
The remaining teams (excluding the four teams from national associations with an extra berth) were seeded into three pots based on the final placement of their national association's club in the previous edition of the tournament, excluding the champions, with the highest two (Colombia 1 and Brazil 2) placed in Pot 1, the next four (Chile 1, Argentina, Paraguay 2 and Peru) placed in Pot 2 and the lowest four (Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia) in Pot 3. The four additional teams from associations with the best historical performance (Brazil 3, Chile 2, Colombia 2 and Paraguay 3) were seeded into Pot 4. From Pot 1, the first team drawn was placed into group C and the second team drawn placed into group D, both teams assigned to position 1 in their group. From each remaining pot, the first team drawn was placed into Group A, the second team drawn placed into Group B, the third team drawn placed into Group C and the final team drawn placed into Group D, with teams from Pot 2, 3 and 4 assigned to positions 2, 3 and 4 in their group. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.[27]
The draw resulted in the following groups:
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In the group stage, the teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order (Regulations Article 23).[11]
The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the quarter-finals.
All times are local, PYST (UTC−3).[28]
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Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams played a single-elimination tournament. If tied after full time, extra time would not be played, and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 25).[11]
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Daniela Arias (Santa Fe) was inscribed on the tournament but she did not play due to injury.[29] Érika (Corinthians) was ruled out of the final due to ACL injury of her right knee.[30]
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| Final MVP Award: Gabi Zanotti (Corinthians)
| Match rules
|
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center rowspan=5 | 1 | Tatiana Ariza | Deportivo Cali | align=center rowspan=5 | 4 |
| Linda Caicedo | Deportivo Cali | ||||
| Jheniffer | Corinthians | ||||
| Esperanza Pizarro | Nacional | ||||
| Victória | Corinthians | ||||
| align=center rowspan=5 | 6 | Yamila Badell | Nacional | align=center rowspan=5 | 3 |
| Rebeca Fernández | Universidad de Chile | ||||
| Rafa Mineira | Ferroviária | ||||
 Madelin Riera | Deportivo Cuenca | ||||
| Tamires | Corinthians |
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time were counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-out were counted as draws.
The 2021 Copa Libertadores Femenina team was a squad consisting of the eleven most impressive players at the tournament.
