1996 Copa Libertadores

1996 Copa Libertadores de América

Libertadores 1996
Tournament details
Dates	March 13 - June 26
Teams	21 (from 10 associations)
Final positions
Champions	River Plate (2nd title)
Runners-up	América
Tournament statistics
Matches played	90
Goals scored	252 (2.8 per match)

The 1996 edition of Copa Libertadores was the 37th in the tournament's history. Twenty-one teams participated in the competition. River Plate, of Argentina, won the tournament for their second time. The tournament began on March 13 and ended on June 26.

Group stage

Twenty teams were divided into five groups of four teams each for the Group Stage. The top three teams of each group, as well as Grêmio (who received a bye as winners of the previous year's edition of the tournament) qualified to the Round of 16.

Group 1

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Barcelona	13	6	4	1	1	11	8	+3
Cerro Porteño	10	6	3	1	2	8	7	+1
ESPOLI	6	6	2	0	4	7	10	-3
Olimpia	5	6	1	2	3	5	6	-1

Group 2

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Peñarol	9	6	2	3	1	13	10	+3
Defensor Sporting	7	6	1	4	1	6	6	0
Sporting Cristal	7	6	1	4	1	6	7	-1
Universitario	7	6	2	1	3	7	9	-2

Group 3

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
América	12	6	4	0	2	11	2	+9
Junior	10	6	3	1	2	8	6	+2
San José	9	6	3	0	3	6	8	-2
Guabirá	4	6	1	1	4	7	16	-9

Group 4

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Corinthians	13	6	4	1	1	13	6	+7
Universidad de Chile	10	6	3	1	2	7	7	0
Botafogo	7	6	2	1	3	10	10	0
Universidad Católica	4	6	1	1	4	6	13	-7

Group 5

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
River Plate	14	6	4	2	0	14	3	+11
San Lorenzo	10	6	2	4	0	13	5	+8
Minervén	5	6	1	2	3	8	16	-8
Caracas	2	6	0	2	4	6	17	-11

Knockout stages

Round of 16

First leg matches were played between April 30 and May 2. Second leg matches were played on May 8 and May 9.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Universidad de Chile	4–4 (7–6 p)	Defensor Sporting	3–2	1–2
Botafogo	1–3	Grêmio	1–1	0–2
Cerro Porteño	0–1	Junior	0–0	0–1
Minervén	2–5	América	1–1	1–4
Sporting Cristal	4–6	River Plate	2–1	2–5
San José	2–2 (2–4 p)	Barcelona	1–0	1–2
ESPOLI	1–5	Corinthians	1–3	0–2
San Lorenzo	8–3	Peñarol	3–2	5–1

Quarter-Finals

First leg matches were played on May 15. Second leg matches were played on May 22 and May 24.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
San Lorenzo	2-3	River Plate	1-2	1-1
Corinthians	1-3	Grêmio	0-3	1-0
Junior	1-2	América	1-1	0-1
Universidad de Chile	3-1	Barcelona	2-0	1-1

Semi-Finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Universidad de Chile	2-3	River Plate	2-2	0-1
Grêmio	2-3	América	1-0	1-3

First leg

5 June 1996

21:15

Universidad de Chile	2 – 2	River Plate
Valencia 23' Salas 69'		Francescoli 21' Sorín 77'

Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago

Referee: José Luis da Rosa (Uruguay)

Second leg

12 June 1996

River Plate	1 – 0	Universidad de Chile
Almeyda 33'

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti (Monumental de Nuñez), Buenos Aires

Referee: Alfredo Rodas (Ecuador)

River Plate won 3–2 on aggregate.

Final

Main article: 1996 Copa Libertadores Finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
América	1-2	River Plate	1-0	0-2

First leg

19 June 1996

20:30

América	1 – 0	River Plate
de Ávila 26'

Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero, Santiago de Cali

Referee: Oscar Velásquez (Paraguay)

Second leg

26 June 1996

21:45

River Plate	2 – 0	América
Crespo 6', 59'

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti (Monumental de Nuñez), Buenos Aires

Referee: Júlio Matto (Uruguay)

River Plate won 2–1 on aggregate.

Champion

Copa Libertadores 1996: River Plate Second title

References

• Copa Libertadores 1996 at RSSSF