2015 Copa Sudamericana

The 2015 Copa Sudamericana was the 14th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.
Colombian team Santa Fe qualified to play in the 2016 Copa Libertadores, the 2016 Recopa Sudamericana, and the 2016 Suruga Bank Championship, after winning the final against Argentinian team Huracán 3–1 on penalties. River Plate were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Huracán in the semifinals.

Teams

The following 47 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament:

Title holders
Brazil: 8 berths
Argentina: 6 berths
All other associations: 4 berths each

The entry stage is determined as follows:

Round of 16: Title holders
Second stage: 14 teams
First stage: 32 teams

Association

Team

Entry stage

Qualification method

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Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on July 16, 2015, at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.
For the first stage, the 32 teams were divided into two zones:

South Zone: The 16 teams from Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay were drawn into eight ties.
North Zone: The 16 teams from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela were drawn into eight ties.

Teams which qualified for berths 1 were drawn against teams which qualified for berths 4, and teams which qualified for berths 2 were drawn against teams which qualified for berths 3, with the former hosting the second leg in both cases. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same tie.
For the second stage, the 30 teams, including the 16 winners of the first stage, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, and the 14 teams which entered the second stage, were divided into three sections:

Winners of the first stage: The 16 winners of the first stage were drawn into eight ties, with the order of legs decided by draw. Teams from the same association could be drawn into the same tie.
Brazil: The eight teams from Brazil were drawn into four ties. Teams which qualified for berths 1–4 were drawn against teams which qualified for berths 5–8, with the former hosting the second leg.
Argentina: The six teams from Argentina were drawn into three ties. Teams which qualified for berths 1–3 were drawn against teams which qualified for berths 4–6, with the former hosting the second leg.

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Stage	First leg	Second leg
First stage	August 12	August 19
Second stage	August 19, 26	August 26 September 16
Round of 16	September 23	September 30
Quarterfinals	October 21	October 28
Semifinals	November 4	November 25
Finals	December 2	December 9

;Notes

Elimination stages

In the elimination stages, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule was used. If still tied, the penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner. The 15 winners of the second stage advanced to the [|round of 16] to join the defending champions.

Final stages

In the final stages, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the following rules:

Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg.
In the round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals, if tied on aggregate, the away goals rule would be used. If still tied, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.
In the finals, if tied on aggregate, the away goals rule would not be used, and 30 minutes of extra time would be played. If still tied after extra time, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.
If there were two semifinalists from the same association, they would have to play each other.

The qualified teams were seeded in the final stages according to the draw of the tournament, with each team assigned a "seed" 1–16 by draw.

Semifinals

Since there were two semifinalists from Argentina, they had to play each other instead of their original opponents as determined by the seeding.

Finals

The finals were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg. If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule would not be used, and 30 minutes of extra time would be played. If still tied after extra time, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.