Libertadores to Sudamericana: follow the group-stage transfer route

Competition identity

The competitions remain distinct

The 2026 CONMEBOL Libertadores and Sudamericana have separate group fields, trophies and records. A transfer route between them does not merge their group tables. The competition name attached to each result still matters.

The official 2026 group draws establish eight groups of four in each competition. The clubs and points of one group do not simply continue as a single shared table with the corresponding letter in the other tournament.

Libertadores third places enter a different contest

The Libertadores club manual gives its eight group third-place finishers a route to the Sudamericana round-of-16 playoffs. They have not reached the Libertadores round of 16 through that third-place finish. Their continental season continues in another competition.

A hypothetical club finishing third in Libertadores Group B therefore needs its next stage labelled Sudamericana playoff. Calling that next tie another Libertadores knockout round would attach the match to the wrong tournament.

Sudamericana second places face those transferred clubs

CONMEBOL’s playoff explanation pairs Sudamericana group runners-up with the Libertadores third-place teams. Sudamericana group winners take the direct route to its round of 16, while the runners-up need the additional playoff tie.

Second and first can therefore both remain in contention but carry different routes. Do not label every top-two group finish as direct round-of-16 qualification. The additional tie is a meaningful part of the competition.

A playoff winner joins a new round

The eight playoff ties provide eight winners to join the eight Sudamericana group winners in the round of 16. Eight plus eight produces the sixteen-team field. The preceding group result does not award a goal credit in that new tie.

For a hypothetical matchup, a transferred club and a group runner-up begin their playoff under the rules for that stage. The transferred club’s earlier Libertadores points do not get added to the opponent’s Sudamericana points to choose a winner.

Keep stage and year beside an archived result

A club can appear under both competition names within the same year because of this route. That does not make every pair of near-identical listings a duplicate. Check the actual stage before removing or relabelling a match.

The 2026 manuals govern the applicable aggregate, tie-breaking and final-stage procedures. This guide explains the movement between fields without copying an older edition’s deciding rules, inventing a fixture or claiming that a continental competition logo establishes viewing rights.

Questions answered

Does third in a Libertadores group advance to its round of 16?

No. The cited route sends those clubs into Sudamericana playoffs.

Do Sudamericana runners-up go directly to its round of 16?

They must first win a playoff against a transferred Libertadores club.

Are the two competitions’ group points combined?

No. They have separate groups and results.

Sources & further reading

Official references for the subjects discussed. Service terms and device software can change.