A continental club title
Copa Libertadores is the familiar name for CONMEBOL Libertadores, the leading South American club competition. The participants represent clubs from member associations, not national teams playing a Copa América. A Brazilian or Argentine club may therefore have domestic league fixtures and Libertadores fixtures during the same period. Their points and results belong to different competitions even when the same players appear in both.
The group stage follows preliminary qualification
CONMEBOL’s 2026 draw explanation identifies thirty-two group-stage clubs, with some arriving through preliminary rounds. The field is divided into eight groups of four. Each club meets its three group opponents home and away, producing six group matches. This is a genuine reverse-fixture arrangement, unlike continental formats in which clubs face a selection of different opponents once each.
Read more than the winner’s row
The two leading clubs in each group advance to the Libertadores round of sixteen. The third-placed club takes a route into the Copa Sudamericana’s round-of-sixteen playoffs. Those outcomes are different: qualification for another competition is not the same as continuing in Libertadores. Read the final group table and the destination stated by CONMEBOL before describing a club as through or eliminated without qualification.
Know whether the fixture is a leg or the final
The 2026 club manual distinguishes the preliminary, group and final phases, and identifies the championship final as a single match rather than a home-and-away tie. For knockout rounds with two legs, keep the aggregate result separate from the score on one evening. Use the season and stage when finding an archive or result, because a domestic derby, group match and knockout return between familiar clubs are different fixtures. Competition artwork does not establish who is licensed to show them in the UK.
Questions, answered
Is Libertadores a national-team tournament?
No. It is a continental club competition, separate from the national-team Copa América.
Does third place in a 2026 Libertadores group continue in the same competition?
No. CONMEBOL’s format sends third place to the Sudamericana round-of-sixteen playoff route, while the top two advance in Libertadores.