2024 U-20 Copa Libertadores Explained

The 2024 U-20 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores (es|'''Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub-20 2024''') was the 8th edition of the U-20 CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the U-20 Copa Libertadores), South America's premier under-20 club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. It was held in Uruguay from 2 to 17 March 2024.^{[1] [2]}

Boca Juniors were the defending champions.

Teams

The competition was contested by 12 teams: the title holders, the youth champions from each of the ten CONMEBOL member associations, and one additional team from the host association.^[3]

Association	Team	Qualifying method	data-sort-type="number"	Participation	Previous best result
	Boca Juniors (holders)	2023 U-20 Copa Libertadores champions	4th	Champions (2023)
		2023 Cuarta División (U-20) runners-up[4] [5]	1st	—
	Always Ready	2023 U-20 Torneo Nacional champions[6]	2nd	Group stage (2023)
	Flamengo	2023 Campeonato Brasileiro Sub-20 champions[7]	3rd	data-sort-value="3"	Third place (2020)
	Colo-Colo	2024 Supercopa Proyección winners[8] [9]	3rd	data-sort-value="6"	Group stage (2018, 2020)
	Águilas Doradas	2023 Supercopa Juvenil champions[10] [11]	1st	—
	Aucas	2023 Campeonato Nacional de Categorías Formativas U-19 champions[12] [13]	1st	—
	Olimpia	2023 U-19 Torneo Anual champions[14]	1st	—
	Sporting Cristal	2023 Torneo de Promoción y Reserva champions[15]	4th	data-sort-value="6"	Group stage (2012, 2020, 2022)
(hosts)	Defensor Sporting	2023 Campeonato Uruguayo Juvenil Divisional A U-19 champions[16]	3rd	Runners-up (2012)
	Montevideo City Torque	2023 Campeonato Uruguayo Juvenil Divisional A U-19 runners-up	1st	—
	Academia Puerto Cabello	2023 Liga FUTVE Junior U-20 champions[17]	2nd	Group stage (2020)

Squads

Players born between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2008 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 20 and a minimum of 16 players, including at least 2 goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 47 and 50).^[3]

Venues

Uruguay was confirmed as host country of the tournament on 20 December 2023.^[2] This will be the second time that Uruguay hosts the tournament having previously done so in 2018.^[18]

Colonia del Sacramento and Maldonado were selected as host cities and announced after the draw.^[19] Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici in Colonia hosted the matches of groups A and B matches while Estadio Domingo Burgueño in Maldonado hosted the group C and the final stage matches.^[20]

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 13 February 2024, 12:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay.^[21] The draw was conducted according to the following guidelines:^[21]

• The defending champions Boca Juniors were automatically assigned to Group A, position A1.
• The remaining 11 teams were seeded into four pots; one of two teams and three of three teams, based on the final placement of their national association's club in the previous edition of the tournament, in order to be drawn into three groups of four.
• Teams from the two best associations (Argentina and Ecuador) were seeded into Pot 1 and drawn to the first position of groups B or C. The first team drawn was placed into Group B and the second team drawn placed into Group C.
• Teams from the next three associations (Paraguay, Uruguay 1 and Venezuela) were seeded into Pot 2 and drawn to the second position of groups A, B or C.
• Teams from the next three associations (Brazil, Colombia and Chile) were seeded into Pot 3 and drawn to the third position of groups A, B or C.
• Teams from the last two associations (Peru and Bolivia) and the additional team from the host association (Uruguay 2) were seeded into Pot 4 and drawn to the fourth position of groups A, B or C.
• From pots 2, 3 and 4, the first team drawn was placed into Group A, the second team drawn placed into Group B and the final team drawn placed into Group C. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

The draw resulted in the following groups:^[22]

width=33.3%

+ Group A width=202 Team A1 Boca Juniors A2 Academia Puerto Cabello A3 Colo-Colo A4 Always Ready

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+ Group B width=202 Team B1 Rosario Central B2 Olimpia B3 Águilas Doradas B4 Montevideo City Torque

width=33.3%

+ Group C width=202 Team C1 Aucas C2 Defensor Sporting C3 Flamengo C4 Sporting Cristal

Match officials

On 21 February 2024, CONMEBOL announced that its Referee Commission had appointed 11 referees and 22 assistant referees for the tournament.^[23] For the first time, a UEFA refereeing team will officiate in the U-20 Copa Libertadores as part of the UEFA–CONMEBOL memorandum of understanding signed in February 2020, which included a referee exchange programme.^[24] It will be also the first time that women assistant referees will participate in the tournament.^[25]

• Leandro Rey
  • Assistants: José Savorani and Sebastián Raineri
• Jordy Alemán
  • Assistants: Juan Montaño and Rubén Flores
• Ramon Abatti
  • Assistants: Nailton Sousa and Luanderson de Lima
• Francisco Gilabert
  • Assistants: Alan Sandoval and Gabriel Ureta
• Carlos Betancur
  • Assistants: David Fuentes and Mary Blanco
• Bryan Loayza
  • Assistants: Danny Ávila and David Vacacela

• Juan López
  • Assistants: Eduardo Britos and Nancy Fernández
• Joel Alarcón
  • Assistants: Alberth Alarcón and José Castillo
• Guillermo Cuadra Fernández
  • Assistants: Iván Masso and Guadalupe Porras
• Mathías De Armas
  • Assistants: Pablo Llarena and Agustín Berisso
• Yender Herrera
  • Assistants: Erizon Nieto and Migdalia Rodríguez

Group stage

The winners of each group and the best runner-up among all groups advanced to the semi-finals.

TiebreakersIn the group stage, teams were ranked according to points earned (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Articles 20, 21):^[3]

1. Head-to-head result in games between tied teams;
   • Head-to-head points in the matches played among the tied teams;
   • Head-to-head goal difference in the matches played among the tied teams;
   • Head-to-head goals scored in the matches played among the tied teams;
2. Goal difference

1. Goals scored;
2. Fewest number of red cards received;
3. Fewest number of yellow cards received;
4. Drawing of lots.

All match times were local, UYT (UTC−3), as listed by CONMEBOL.^{[26] [27] [28]}

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Ranking of group runners-up

Final stage

The semi-final matchups were:

• Group A winner vs. Best runner-up
• Group B winner vs. Group C winner

The semi-final winners and losers played in the final and third place match respectively. If tied after full time, a penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 24).^[3]

All match times were local, UYT (UTC−3), as listed by CONMEBOL.^[29]

Semi-finals

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Final

See main article: 2024 U-20 Copa Libertadores Final.

External links

• CONMEBOL Libertadores U-20, CONMEBOL.com

Notes and References

1. Web site: Todos los torneos de la CONMEBOL para el 2024. CONMEBOL. 12 December 2023. es.
2. Web site: Sedes y fechas de torneos CONMEBOL 2024. CONMEBOL. 20 December 2023. es.
3. Web site: REGLAMENTO CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub20 2024. CONMEBOL. 23 January 2024. es.
4. Web site: ASOCIACIÓN DEL FÚTBOL ARGENTINO BOLETÍN ESPECIAL Nº 6263 REGLAMENTO TORNEO CATEGORÍAS JUVENILES DE LA LIGA PROFESIONAL DE FÚTBOL DE AFA TEMPORADA 2023. Argentine Football Association. 9 March 2023. es.
5. Web site: Vamos los pibes: Newell’s gritó campeón en 5ª división y la 4ª de Central clasificó a la Libertadores sub 20. Channel 3. 12 November 2023. es.
6. Web site: Always Ready se corona bicampeón del torneo Nacional Sub-20. Always Ready is crowned two-times champions of the U-20 Torneo Nacional. La Razón. Apaza. Paulo. La Paz. 16 December 2023. es.
7. Web site: Regulamento Específico da Competição Brasileiro Sub-20 2023. Brazilian Football Confederation. 17 February 2023. pt-br.
8. Web site: FÚTBOL FORMATIVO BASES CAMPEONATOS NACIONALES GATORADE CATEGORIAS SUB 15, SUB 16, SUB 17 Y PROYECCIÓN - VARONES TEMPORADA – 2023. Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. Santiago. December 2022. Approved on 12 January 2023. es.
9. Web site: Colo Colo superó a Palestino en la Supercopa Proyección 2024 y clasificó a la Conmebol Libertadores Sub 20. Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. campeonatochileno.cl. 15 February 2024. es.
10. Web site: Reglamento Supercopa Juvenil FCF 2023. Colombian Football Federation. Bogotá. 27 February 2023. es.
11. Web site: FCF felicita a Águilas Doradas por conquistar el título de la Supercopa Juvenil 2023. Colombian Football Federation. 3 December 2023. es.
12. Web site: Reglamento de los Campeonatos Nacionales de Categorías Formativas 2023. Ecuadorian Football Federation. Guayaquil. 30 March 2023. Approved on 27 March 2023. es.
13. Web site: Aucas es campeón Sub 19 y jugará la Copa Libertadores Sub 20. Olé. 20 December 2023. es.
14. Web site: Olimpia es el monarca de la Sub 19. Paraguayan Football Association. 26 September 2023. es.
15. Web site: Sporting Cristal, campeón del Torneo de Promoción y Reservas tras vencer en la final a Universitario de Deportes. Futbolperuano.com. 23 November 2022. es.
16. Web site: La próxima Copa Libertadores sub-20 se jugará en Uruguay. ¿Qué equipos locales se meten?. Montevideo Portal. 20 December 2023. es.
17. Web site: Academia Rey, Caracas, Zamora, Metropolitanos Y Puerto Cabello monarcas de la Liga FUTVE Junior. Venezuelan Football Federation. 2 December 2023. es.
18. Web site: La Copa Libertadores sub 20 será en Uruguay en 2024; mirá qué equipos locales están clasificados. El Observador. 21 December 2023. es.
19. Web site: Maldonado y Colonia serán Sedes. La Prensa. 14 February 2024. es.
20. Web site: Las promesas del fútbol sudamericano salen a la cancha. CONMEBOL. 2 March 2024. es.
21. Web site: Conoceremos los grupos para la CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub20 2024. CONMEBOL. 25 January 2024. es.
22. Web site: Grupos confirmados para la CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub20 2024. CONMEBOL. 13 February 2024. es.
23. Web site: Árbitros convocados para la CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub20. CONMEBOL. 21 February 2024. es.
24. Web site: La CONMEBOL y la UEFA acuerdan cooperación en materia arbitral. CONMEBOL and UEFA agree to cooperation in arbitration matters. CONMEBOL. CONMEBOL.com. 21 April 2021. es.
25. Web site: Árbitras participarán por primera vez en la CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub20. Female referees will participate for the first time in CONMEBOL Libertadores U20. CONMEBOL. 21 February 2024. es.
26. LibertadoresU20. 1758507468374589883. ¡Todo definido! El cronograma de partidos del Grupo A de la CONMEBOL #LibertadoresSub20. CONMEBOL. 16 February 2024. es.
27. LibertadoresU20. 1758507202661277895. ¡Fixture listo! Días y horarios confirmados para los partidos del Grupo B en la CONMEBOL #LibertadoresSub20. CONMEBOL. 16 February 2024. es.
28. LibertadoresU20. 1758506764658499765. ¡Partidos confirmados! Este es el cronograma de juegos para los equipos del Grupo C de la CONMEBOL #LibertadoresSub20. CONMEBOL. 16 February 2024. es.
29. LibertadoresU20. 1767193768304726119. ¡Horario confirmado! Así se jugará la Fase Final de la CONMEBOL #LibertadoresSub20. CONMEBOL. 11 March 2024. es.