Copa Mercosur

Copa Mercosur
	The trophy awarded to champions
Organising body	CONMEBOL
Founded	1998
Abolished	2001; 23 years ago
Region	South America
Number of teams	20
Related competitions	Copa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)	Palmeiras; Flamengo; Vasco; San Lorenzo ; (1 title each)

The Copa Mercosur (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkopa meɾkoˈsuɾ], Portuguese: Copa Mercosul [ˈkɔpɐ meʁkoˈsuw], "Mercosur Cup") was a football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate TV money to the participating teams, but it went beyond and ended up, together with the Copa Merconorte, as natural replacement to the CONMEBOL Cup. These two, Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur, were replaced in 2002 by the Copa Sudamericana.

Format

Twenty teams played in the tournament. The teams were divided in five groups of four teams each and the matches were played in two legs. The group winners and the best three runners-up qualified for the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals, the semifinals were played in two legs. In 1998 and 2000 the finals were played in three legs. In 1999 and 2001 the finals were played in two legs.

Finals

Key

Match decided by a penalty shootout after extra time *
Bold – Indicates the winner in two-legged finals

Year	Country	Home team	Score	Away team	Country	Venue	Location
1998	BRA	Cruzeiro	2–1	Palmeiras	BRA	Mineirão	Belo Horizonte, Brazil
	BRA	Palmeiras	3–1	Cruzeiro	BRA	Palestra Itália	São Paulo, Brazil
	BRA	Palmeiras	1–0	Cruzeiro	BRA	Palestra Itália	São Paulo, Brazil
	Palmeiras won 6–3 on points
1999	BRA	Flamengo	4–3	Palmeiras	BRA	Maracanã	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
	BRA	Palmeiras	3–3	Flamengo	BRA	Palestra Itália	São Paulo, Brazil
	Flamengo won 4–1 on points
2000	BRA	Vasco da Gama	2–0	Palmeiras	BRA	São Januário	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
	BRA	Palmeiras	1-0	Vasco da Gama	BRA	Palestra Itália	São Paulo, Brazil
	BRA	Palmeiras	3–4	Vasco da Gama	BRA	Palestra Itália	São Paulo, Brazil
	Vasco da Gama won 6–3 on points
2001	BRA	Flamengo	0–0	San Lorenzo	ARG	Maracanã	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
	ARG	San Lorenzo	1–1	Flamengo	BRA	Pedro Bidegain	Buenos Aires, Argentina
	Tied 1–1 on aggregate; San Lorenzo won 4–3 on penalties*

Performances

By club

Team	Won	Runner-up	Years won	Years runner-up
Palmeiras	1	2	1998	1999, 2000
Flamengo	1	1	1999	2001
San Lorenzo	1	0	2001	—
Vasco da Gama	1	0	2000	—
Cruzeiro	0	1	—	1998

By country

Country	Won	Runners-Up	Winning Clubs	Runners-Up
Brazil	3	4	Flamengo (1); Palmeiras (1); Vasco da Gama (1)	Palmeiras (2); Flamengo (1); Cruzeiro (1)
Argentina	1	0	San Lorenzo (1)	—

References

Copa Mercosur at RSSSF