South America’s second-string competition is not easy to predict at this stage. Eight potential heavyweights are not even in the field yet–as in the UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues, the teams who finish third in their Copa Libertadores group will join the Copa Sudamericana in the knockout rounds, and in two of the last three seasons teams entering the Sudamericana through this route have ended up winning the competition.
This time, though, there has been an
