No truce: Conmebol is giving away the preliminary stages of the Copa Libertadores, with Huracán, and Sudamericana

While the effluvia of the consecration of the Argentine national team in Qatar World Cup still in the air, national and continental football activity begins to resume its dynamics. While there’s still over a month left before the ball rolls back to this part of the planet, the South American Football Confederation the draw for the preliminary stages of the was held this Wednesday Libertadores Cup and the South American Cupwho started tracing the path of Hurricane in the continent’s premier club competition.

The Parque Patricios team, fifth in the last edition of the Professional Soccer League, will begin its journey in the second phase of the Libertadores, whose matches will take place in the weeks of February 22nd and March 1st. In that case, he will compete against the winner of the first round crossing which will have Boston River from Uruguay and Zamora from Venezuela as protagonists. (The first leg, in Montevideo, will be played in the week of 8 February and the second leg, in Barinas, the following week). The Balloon He will be a guest in the first leg and will define the key to Tomás Ducó.

The second stage has already five definite crosses: those who will be the protagonists of the Catholic University of Quito–Millionaires of Bogotá, Curicó Unido–Cerro Porteño, Deportivo Magallanes–Always Ready, Deportivo Maldonado–Fortaleza and Carabobo–Atlético Mineiro. Like Huracán, Independiente Medellín and Sporting Cristal will have to wait for the winners of the other keys in the first phase: the Colombians will face Nacional de Potosí or El Nacional de Quito; the Peruvians, with Sport Huancayo or Nacional de Asunción.

If Huracán overcome that first hurdle, they will still need to overcome another draw to enter the group stage, in which they already have a guaranteed place Boca, River, Racing, Argentinos Juniors and the Board of Trustees, and which will begin the week of April 5th. In the third round, they would face either Sporting Cristal or winners Sport Huancayo and Nacional de Asunción.

In the headquarters that the parent company of subcontinental football owns in Luque, the draw for the qualifying phase of the South American Cup. in that case there will be no Argentine representationas only in the group stage will they unite San Lorenzo, Newell’s, Estudiantes, Gimnasia, Tigre Y Defense and Justice.

The main novelties of this tournament, in which 56 teams will participate, will lie in the format. As reported by Conmebol through a press release, these changes “aim to maintain the number of matches, but to give more dynamism and commitment to the group stage and the round of 16”.

One of the novelties is that the first qualifying phase, in which teams face rivals from the same country, will be played in a single match. The other is that the teams finishing second in each of the group stage zones will no longer be eliminated directly, as was the case up until this year, but will have the option of progressing to the round of 16: they will play an away match with the teams who finish in third place in the groups of the Copa Libertadores.

The first round of the South Americans will start on 7 March, while the group stage (whose draw will take place in the week of 22 March) will start, like the Libertadores, in the week of 5 April.