1998 Copa Mercosur

The Copa Mercosur 1998 was the first season of the Copa Mercosur, CONMEBOL's club tournament.

Copa Mercosur 1998

Tournament details
Dates	29 July – 29 December 1998
Teams	20 (from 5 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Palmeiras (1st title)
Runners-up	Cruzeiro
Tournament statistics
Matches played	75
Goals scored	218 (2.91 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alex Fábio Júnior (6 goals each)
1999 →

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

Participants

Country	Team
Argentina (6 berths)	Boca Juniors
	Independiente
	Racing
	River Plate
	San Lorenzo
	Vélez Sársfield
Brazil (7 berths)	Corinthians
	Cruzeiro
	Grêmio
	Flamengo
	Palmeiras
	São Paulo
	Vasco da Gama
Chile (3 berths)	Colo-Colo
	Universidad Católica
	Universidad de Chile
Paraguay (2 berths)	Cerro Porteño
	Olimpia
Uruguay (2 berths)	Nacional
	Peñarol

Details

• The 20 teams were divided into 5 groups of 4 teams. Each team plays the 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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CRU	SAN	SAO	COL
1	Cruzeiro	6	3	1	2	15	7	8	10	Advance to Quarter-finals		—	2–1	5–1	5–0
2	San Lorenzo	6	3	1	2	11	8	3	10			2–1	—	3–2	3–0
3	São Paulo	6	2	1	3	8	12	−4	7			1–1	2–1	—	1–0
4	Colo-Colo	6	2	1	3	5	12	−7	7			2–1	1–1	2–1	—

Source:

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PAL	NAC	IND	UC
1	Palmeiras	6	6	0	0	16	3	13	18	Advance to Quarter-finals		—	3–1	2–1	1–0
2	Nacional	6	3	0	3	10	14	−4	9			0–5	—	2–1	1–0
3	Independiente	6	2	0	4	12	15	−3	6			0–3	4–3	—	6–2
4	Universidad de Chile	6	1	0	5	7	13	−6	3			1–2	1–3	3–0	—

Source:

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RAC	OLI	COR	PEÑ
1	Racing	6	4	2	0	9	4	5	14	Advance to Quarter-finals		—	1–0	1–0	0–0
2	Olimpia	6	3	1	2	13	12	1	10			2–4	—	2–2	4–2
3	Corinthians	6	1	2	3	7	8	−1	5			1–2	1–2	—	1–1
4	Peñarol	6	0	3	3	6	11	−5	3			1–1	2–3	0–2	—

Source:

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		VEL	BOC	FLA	CER
1	Vélez Sársfield	6	3	2	1	7	6	1	11	Advance to Quarter-finals		—	2–1	1–0	1–1
2	Boca Juniors	6	3	0	3	11	7	4	9			0–1	—	3–0	3–1
3	Flamengo	6	3	0	3	7	8	−1	9			2–0	0–2	—	2–0
4	Cerro Porteño	6	1	2	3	9	13	−4	5			2–2	3–2	2–3	—

Source:

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RIV	VAS	GRE	CAT
1	River Plate	6	2	3	1	8	7	1	9	Advance to Quarter-finals		—	1–1	3–1	1–1
2	Vasco da Gama	6	2	3	1	4	3	1	9			0–0	—	1–0	1–0
3	Grêmio	6	2	1	3	10	9	1	7			2–3	1–0	—	5–1
4	Universidad Católica	6	1	3	2	6	9	−3	6			2–0	1–1	1–1	—

Source:

Ranking of second placed teams

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A	San Lorenzo	6	3	1	2	11	8	3	10	Advance to Quarter-finals
2	C	Olimpia	6	3	1	2	13	12	1	10
3	D	Boca Juniors	6	3	0	3	11	7	4	9
4	E	Vasco da Gama	6	2	3	1	4	3	1	9
5	B	Nacional	6	3	0	3	10	14	−4	9

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points in all group matches; 2) total goal differential; 3) total goals scored; 4) lots drawn by CONMEBOL.

Quarter-finals

First leg

1998-10-29

Palmeiras	3–1	Boca Juniors
Almir 27' Arílson 48' Magrão 89'		Rey 51' (pen.)

---

1998-10-28

River Plate	1–2	Cruzeiro
Gallardo 78' (pen.)		Marcelo 32' Fábio Júnior 71'

---

1998-10-27

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

---

1998-10-29

San Lorenzo	0–0	Racing

Second leg

1998-11-05

Boca Juniors	1–1	Palmeiras
Palermo 58'		Alex 80'

Palmeiras won 4–2 on aggregate.

---

1998-11-05

Cruzeiro	2–0	River Plate
Fábio Júnior 36' Gilberto 83'

Cruzeiro won 4–1 on aggregate.

---

1998-11-04

Olimpia	2–1	Vélez Sársfield
Santa Cruz 24' 40'		Camps 65'

Olimpia won 6–4 on aggregate.

---

1998-11-05

Racing	1–1	San Lorenzo
Delgado 71' (pen.)		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'

---

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.

---

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
Marcelo 21' Fábio Júnior 90' (pen.)		Roque Júnior 44'

Mineirão, Belo Horizonte

Attendance: 40,000

Referee: Sidrack Marinho

Second leg

1998-12-26

Palmeiras	3–1	Cruzeiro
Cléber 7' Oséas 54' Paulo Nunes 89'		Fábio Júnior 2' (pen.)

Parque Antárctica, São Paulo

Attendance: 49,400

Referee: Claudio Vinicius Cerdeira

Play Off

1998-12-29

Palmeiras	1–0	Cruzeiro
Arce 62'

Parque Antárctica, São Paulo

Referee: Luciano Almeida

Copa Mercosur 1998 Winner
Palmeiras First Title

References

• RSSSF – Copa Mercosur 1998