Apertura 2018 Copa MX

Tournament details
Country	Mexico
Teams	27
Final positions
Champions	Cruz Azul (4th title)
Runner-up	Monterrey
Tournament statistics
Matches played	69
Goals scored	190 (2.75 per match)
Attendance	902,828 (13,084 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Martín Cauteruccio (6 goals)
←  Clausura 2018 Clausura 2019 →

The Apertura 2018 Copa MX was the 80th staging of the Copa MX, the 52nd staging in the professional era and is the thirteenth tournament played since the 1996–97 edition.

The tournament started on 24 July 2018 and ended on 31 October 2018.

The final was held at Estadio BBVA Bancomer in the Monterrey suburb of Guadalupe with the visiting team Cruz Azul defeating Monterrey 2–0 to win their fourth title.

As winners, Cruz Azul earned a spot to face the winners of the Clausura 2019 edition, in the 2019 Supercopa MX.

Participants

The tournament will feature all Liga MX clubs (excluding Lobos BUAP) as well as the first ten Ascenso MX clubs of the 2017–18 Ascenso MX aggregate table.

Due to the new format of the CONCACAF Champions League, Mexican clubs do not begin their participation until February, thus the teams qualified to 2018–19 CONCACAF Champions League ( Monterrey, Santos Laguna, Toluca, UANL) will participate in this season's Copa MX.

Teams

The following 27 teams qualified for the tournament.

In the following table, the number of appearances, last appearance, and previous best result count only those in the Copa MX era starting from Apertura 2012 (not counting those in the eras from 1907 to 1996).

Team	Aggregate table ranking	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best	Ref.
Liga MX (17 teams)
Monterrey	1st	10th	Clausura 2018	Champions ( Ap. 2017)	[1]
Necaxa	9th	12th		Champions ( Cl. 2018)	[2]
Toluca	2nd	9th		Runners-up ( Cl. 2018)	[3]
UANL	3rd	5th	Apertura 2017	Champions ( Cl. 2014)	[4]
América	4th	6th	Clausura 2018	Semifinals (3 times)	[5]
Morelia	5th	11th		Champions ( Ap. 2013)	[6]
Cruz Azul	6th	9th		Champions ( Cl. 2013)	[7]
León	7th	9th		Runners-up ( Ap. 2015)	[8]
Santos Laguna	8th	8th		Champions ( Ap. 2014)	[9]
Tijuana	10th	9th	Apertura 2017	Quarterfinals (6 times)	[10]
Atlas	11th	11th	Clausura 2018	Runners-up ( Ap. 2013)	[11]
Pachuca	12th	9th		Runners-up ( Ap. 2017)	[12]
Puebla	13th	13th		Champions ( Cl. 2015)
UNAM	14th	10th		Quarterfinals (2 times)	[13]
Querétaro	15th	11th		Champions ( Ap. 2015)	[14]
Guadalajara	16th	10th	Apertura 2017	Champions (2 times)	[15]
Veracruz	18th	13th	Clausura 2018	Champions ( Cl. 2016)	[16]
Ascenso MX (10 teams)
Zacatecas	1st	10th	Clausura 2018	Round of 16 (2 times)	[17]
Celaya	2nd	12th		Round of 16 ( Cl. 2018)	[18]
Zacatepec	3rd	8th		Semifinals ( Cl. 2018)	[19]
Oaxaca	4th	11th		Runners-up ( Cl. 2014)	[20]
Tampico Madero	5th	2nd		Round of 16 ( Cl. 2018)	[21]
Sinaloa	6th	13th		Champions ( Ap. 2012)	[22]
Tapachula	7th	5th		Quarterfinals ( Cl. 2018)
Venados	8th	6th		Group stage (8 times)	[23] [24]
Juárez	9th	6th		Quarterfinals (2 times)	[25]
Atlético San Luis	10th	8th		Semifinals ( Cl. 2016)	[26] [27]

Draw

The draw for the tournament took place on 5 June 2018 at the Iberostar Hotel in Cancún, Mexico. ^[28] 27 teams were drawn into nine groups of three with each group, except group 9, containing two teams from Liga MX and one team from Ascenso MX. ^[29]

Clubs in Pot 1 were drawn to be the seed of each group according to the order of their drawing. That is, the first club that was drawn is seed of Group 1, the second drawn is seed of Group 2 and so on and so on. ^[29] The Liga MX teams in Pot 1 are teams who ended 1–4 in the 2017–18 Liga MX Aggregate table. ^[28] The champions of the last two editions, Monterrey (who is also first in Aggregate table) and Necaxa are also in Pot 1. ^[28] The Ascenso MX teams in Pot 1 are teams who ended 1–4 in the 2017–18 Ascenso MX Aggregate table. ^[28]

Pot 2 contained Liga MX clubs who ended 5–8 in the Aggregate table and Ascenso MX clubs who ended 5–9 in the Aggregate table. ^[28]

Pot 3 contained Liga MX clubs who ended 10–18 (excluding Lobos BUAP) in the Aggregate table. ^[28] Atlético San Luis, who ended tenth in the Ascenso MX Aggregate table, is the lone Ascenso MX club in Pot 3. ^[28]

Pot 1
Monterrey ( LMX)	Necaxa ( LMX)	Oaxaca ( AMX)
Toluca ( LMX)	Zacatecas ( AMX)	Zacatepec ( AMX)
UANL ( LMX)	Celaya ( AMX)	América ( LMX)
Pot 2
Morelia ( LMX)	Sinaloa ( AMX)	Santos Laguna ( LMX)
Cruz Azul ( LMX)	Tapachula ( AMX)	Juárez ( AMX)
Tampico Madero ( AMX)	León ( LMX)	Venados ( AMX)
Pot 3
Tijuana ( LMX)	Guadalajara ( LMX)	Puebla ( LMX)
Veracruz ( LMX)	Pachuca ( LMX)	Atlas ( LMX)
Querétaro ( LMX)	UNAM ( LMX)	Atlético San Luis ( AMX)

Tiebreakers

If two or more clubs are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

1. scores of the group matches played among the clubs in question;
2. superior goal difference;
3. higher number of goals scored;
4. higher number of goals scored away in the group matches played among the clubs in question;
5. fair play ranking;
6. drawing of lots.

^[30]

Group stage

Every group is composed of three clubs, each group has at least one club from Liga MX and Ascenso MX.

All match times listed are CDT ( UTC–6), except for matches in Culiacán, Ciudad Juárez (both UTC–7) and Tijuana ( UTC–8).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Monterrey	4	3	1	0	9	4	+5	10	Advance to knockout stage
2	Puebla	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7
3	Venados	4	0	0	4	2	8	−6	0

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Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tijuana	4	2	1	1	5	2	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Juárez	4	1	2	1	6	7	−1	5
3	Toluca	4	1	1	2	5	7	−2	4

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Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Querétaro	4	3	0	1	6	4	+2	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	León	4	2	0	2	7	7	0	6
3	Zacatecas	4	1	0	3	7	9	−2	3

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Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Necaxa	4	3	0	1	6	4	+2	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	UNAM	4	2	0	2	6	6	0	6
3	Tampico Madero	4	1	0	3	5	7	−2	3

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Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Pachuca	4	3	1	0	6	0	+6	10	Advance to knockout stage
2	Celaya	4	1	1	2	3	5	−2	4
3	Santos Laguna	4	0	2	2	1	5	−4	2

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Group 6

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cruz Azul	4	2	1	1	7	5	+2	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Zacatepec	4	2	0	2	7	8	−1	6
3	Atlas	4	1	1	2	6	7	−1	4

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Group 7

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	América	4	3	1	0	9	1	+8	10	Advance to knockout stage
2	Sinaloa	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7
3	Veracruz	4	0	0	4	1	9	−8	0

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Group 8

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Guadalajara	4	3	1	0	6	3	+3	10	Advance to knockout stage
2	Morelia	4	1	1	2	6	6	0	4
3	Oaxaca	4	0	2	2	1	4	−3	2

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Group 9

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UANL	4	2	1	1	7	3	+4	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Tapachula	4	1	2	1	4	2	+2	5
3	Atlético San Luis	4	1	1	2	4	10	−6	4

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Ranking of second-placed teams

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	1	Puebla	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	7	Sinaloa	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7
3	3	León	4	2	0	2	7	7	0	6
4	4	UNAM	4	2	0	2	6	6	0	6
5	6	Zacatepec	4	2	0	2	7	8	−1	6
6	9	Tapachula	4	1	2	1	4	2	+2	5
7	2	Juárez	4	1	2	1	6	7	−1	5
8	8	Morelia	4	1	1	2	6	6	0	4
9	5	Celaya	4	1	1	2	3	5	−2	4

Knockout stage

• The clubs that advance to this stage will be ranked and seeded 1 to 16 based on performance in the group stage. In case of ties, the same tiebreakers used to rank the runners-up will be used. ^[30]
• All rounds are played in a single game. If a game ends in a draw, it will proceed directly to a penalty shoot-out. The highest seeded club will host each match, regardless of which division each club belongs. ^[30]
• The winners of the groups and the seven best second place teams of each group will advance to the Knockout stage.

Qualified teams

The nine group winners and the seven best runners-up from the group stage qualify for the final stage.

Group	Winners	Runners-up
1	Monterrey	Puebla
2	Tijuana	Juárez
3	Querétaro	León
4	Necaxa	UNAM
5	Pachuca	—
6	Cruz Azul	Zacatepec
7	América	Sinaloa
8	Guadalajara	—
9	UANL	Tapachula

Seeding

Seed	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	7	América	4	3	1	0	9	1	+8	10
2	5	Pachuca	4	3	1	0	6	0	+6	10
3	1	Monterrey	4	3	1	0	9	4	+5	10
4	8	Guadalajara	4	3	1	0	6	3	+3	10
5	4	Necaxa	4	3	0	1	6	4	+2	9 [a]
6	3	Querétaro	4	3	0	1	6	4	+2	9 [a]
7	9	UANL	4	2	1	1	7	3	+4	7
8	2	Tijuana	4	2	1	1	5	2	+3	7
9	6	Cruz Azul	4	2	1	1	7	5	+2	7
10	1	Puebla	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7
11	7	Sinaloa	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7
12	3	León	4	2	0	2	7	7	0	6
13	4	UNAM	4	2	0	2	6	6	0	6
14	6	Zacatepec	4	2	0	2	7	8	−1	6
15	9	Tapachula	4	1	2	1	4	2	+2	5
16	2	Juárez	4	1	2	1	6	7	−1	5

Bracket

	Round of 16					Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
	2	Pachuca	3
	15	Tapachula	0
						2	Pachuca ( pen.)	3 (6)
						7	UANL	3 (5)
	7	UANL	4
	10	Puebla	0
											2	Pachuca	3 (3)
											3	Monterrey ( pen.)	3 (4)
	3	Monterrey	4
	14	Zacatepec	2
						3	Monterrey	1
						6	Querétaro	0
	6	Querétaro	2
	11	Sinaloa	1
																3	Monterrey	0
																9	Cruz Azul	2
	8	Tijuana	1
	9	Cruz Azul	2
						9	Cruz Azul	2
						16	Juárez	0
	1	América	2 (8)
	16	Juárez ( pen.)	2 (9)
											9	Cruz Azul ( pen.)	1 (5)
											12	León	1 (4)
	5	Necaxa	0
	12	León	2
						12	León ( pen.)	1 (5)
						13	UNAM	1 (4)
	4	Guadalajara	1
	13	UNAM	3

Round of 16

All match times listed are CDT ( UTC–6), except for matches in Tijuana ( UTC–8).

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Quarterfinals

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Semifinals

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Final

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Martín Cauteruccio	Cruz Azul	6
2	Franco Jara	Pachuca	5
3	Matías Alustiza	UNAM	4
	Cecilio Domínguez	América
	Daniel Lajud	Monterrey
	Josué Mercado	Zacatecas
	Leonardo Ulloa	Pachuca
	Eduardo Vargas	UANL

Source: Copa MX

Notes

References

External links

• Official site