The 2018 Liga Profesional de Primera División season, also known as the Campeonato Uruguayo 2018, was the 115th season of Uruguay's top-flight football league, and the 88th in which it is professional. The season was named as "Ing. Julio César Franzini" and began on 3 February, ending on 11 November. Peñarol were the defending champions, and successfully defended the title with a 2–1 win over Nacional in the championship playoff.
Format The format in this season was the same as the most recent season, with the Torneo Apertura in the first half of the year and the Torneo Clausura in the second half, and a Torneo Intermedio played between both tournaments.
Teams
The two bottom-placed teams in the relegation table of the 2017 season, Juventud and Plaza Colonia, as well as Sud América, who lost a tiebreaker to El Tanque Sisley, were relegated to the Segunda División for the 2018 season. They were replaced by Torque, Atenas, and Progreso, who were promoted from the Segunda División.
On 2 February 2018, the Uruguayan Football Association confirmed that El Tanque Sisley would not take part in the league due to an outstanding debt. As a result, El Tanque Sisley were administratively relegated to the second tier for the 2019 season and the season was played by 15 teams.
Club Manager City Stadium Capacity Atenas Ricardo Ortiz San Carlos Atenas 6,000 Boston River Alejandro Apud Montevideo Parque Artigasa 12,000 Cerro Fernando Correa Montevideo Luis Tróccoli 24,000 Danubio Pablo Peirano Montevideo Jardines del Hipódromo 14,401 Defensor Sporting Eduardo Acevedo Montevideo Luis Franzini 18,000 El Tanque Sisley Vacant Montevideo Campeones Olímpicosb 7,000 Fénix Juan Ramón Carrasco Montevideo Parque Capurro 5,500 Liverpool Paulo Pezzolano Montevideo Belvedere 10,000 Montevideo Wanderers Eduardo Espinel Montevideo Parque Alfredo Víctor Viera 7,420 Nacional Alexander Medina Montevideo Gran Parque Central 23,500 Peñarol Diego López Montevideo Campeón del Siglo 40,000 Progreso Marcelo Méndez Montevideo Parque Abraham Paladino 8,000 Racing Juan Tejera Montevideo Osvaldo Roberto 4,500 Rampla Juniors Julio César Antúnez Montevideo Olímpico 9,500 River Plate Jorge Giordano Montevideo Parque Federico Omar Saroldi 5,624 Torque Pablo Marini Montevideo Casto Martínez Laguardac 3,800
a: Boston River is based in Montevideo but plays its home games at Estadio Parque Artigas in Las Piedras. b: El Tanque Sisley is based in Montevideo but plays its home games at Estadio Campeones Olímpicos in Florida. c: Torque is based in Montevideo but plays its home games at Estadio Municipal Casto Martínez Laguarda in San José de Mayo. They played their first five home games at Estadio José Nasazzi in Montevideo.
Managerial changes
TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate of appointmentTorneo AperturaTorque Paulo PezzolanoMutual consent25 November 2017Pre-season Pablo Marini12 December 2017Danubio Roberto RooEnd of caretaker tenure4 December 2017 Pablo Peirano20 December 2017Liverpool Rosario MartínezSacked4 December 2017 Paulo Pezzolano18 December 2017Nacional Martín LasarteMutual consent4 December 2017 Alexander Medina11 December 2017Montevideo Wanderers Jorge GiordanoResigned6 December 2017 Eduardo Espinel17 December 2017Racing Pablo Peirano7 December 2017 Hernán Rodrigo López18 December 2017Cerro José BasualdoMutual consent6 January 2018 Fernando Correa8 January 2018Atenas Adolfo BaránResigned5 May 201812th Miguel Falero7 May 2018Rampla Juniors Luis López6 May 201815th Julio Fuentes7 May 2018Torneo IntermedioFénix Nathaniel RevetriaMutual consent15 May 20188th, Serie A Juan Ramón Carrasco17 May 2018Peñarol Leonardo RamosSigned by Al-Ettifaq7 June 20182nd, Serie B Diego López8 June 2018Torneo ClausuraAtenas Miguel FaleroResigned3 July 2018Pre-tournament Ricardo Ortiz8 July 2018Racing Hernán Rodrigo LópezSacked13 August 201814th Juan Tejera14 August 2018River Plate Pablo Tiscornia27 August 201814th Jorge Giordano29 August 2018Rampla Juniors Julio Fuentes10 September 201810th Julio César Antúnez11 September 2018
Torneo Apertura The Torneo Apertura, named "Sr. Abdón Porte", was the first tournament of the 2018 season. It began on 3 February and ended on 6 May. With El Tanque Sisley being unable to take part in the season, all teams were awarded three points in their matches against El Tanque Sisley, with no goals for being counted.
Standings
Results
Top goalscorers Rank Name Club Goals 1 David TeransDanubio 10 2 Gonzalo BergessioNacional 9 3 Germán RiveroDefensor Sporting 7 4 Leonardo FernándezFénix 6 Diego MartiñonesRampla Juniors Nicolás RodríguezRiver Plate 7 Gastón ColmánProgreso 5 Maureen FrancoCerro Federico MartínezLiverpool Cristian RodríguezPeñarol
Source: Soccerway
Torneo Intermedio The Torneo Intermedio, named "Sr. Juan Carlos Bugallo" was the second tournament of the 2018 season, played between the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. It consisted of two groups whose composition depended on the final standings of the Torneo Apertura: teams in odd-numbered positions played in Serie A, and teams in even-numbered positions played in Serie B. Given the absence of El Tanque Sisley for this season, Serie A had the usual eight teams while Serie B was contested by seven teams. It started on 9 May and ended on 10 June, with the winners being granted a berth into the 2019 Copa Sudamericana and the 2019 Supercopa Uruguaya.
Serie A
Serie B
Torneo Intermedio Final
Top goalscorers Rank Name Club Goals 1 Cristian PalaciosPeñarol 8 2 Gonzalo BergessioNacional 6 3 Luis AguiarNacional 4 Nicolás GonzálezCerro Diego GuastavinoLiverpool Darío PereiraTorque David TeransDanubio 8 Facundo BonéRiver Plate 3 Álvaro BrunTorque Ignacio GonzálezMontevideo Wanderers Juan Ignacio RamírezLiverpool Tabaré ViudezNacional
Source: Soccerway
Torneo Clausura The Torneo Clausura, named "Cr. Hugo Sebastiani", was the third tournament of the 2018 season. It began on 21 July and ended on 4 November. As happened in the Torneo Apertura, all teams were awarded three points in their matches against El Tanque Sisley, with no goals for being counted.
Standings
Results
Top goalscorers
Rank Name Club Goals 1 Gabriel FernándezPeñarol 9 2 Álvaro NavarroDefensor Sporting 8 Federico MartínezLiverpool 4 Luis AcevedoCerro 6 Nicolás AlbarracínMontevideo Wanderers Luis Manuel CastroMontevideo Wanderers Diego CoelhoBoston River Sebastián FernándezNacional Ignacio LemmoProgreso Rodrigo PastoriniMontevideo Wanderers
Source: Soccerway
Aggregate table The aggregate table includes the results of the three stages played throughout the season (Torneo Apertura, Torneo Intermedio, and Torneo Clausura). Since El Tanque Sisley did not compete (which caused the Torneo Intermedio to have groups of different size), the points earned by the teams in the smaller group of the Torneo Intermedio were weighted for the purposes of elaborating the aggregate table: teams in Serie B had their points divided between the number of games they played (6) and then multiplied by the number of games played by teams in Serie A (7), in order to get the points earned in the Torneo Intermedio to the effects of the aggregate table.
Championship playoff
Semi-final
NACIONAL: GK 1 Esteban CondeRB 2 Marcos AngeleriCB 5 Rafael García CB 6 Alexis Rolín LB 22 Alfonso Espino RM 13 Matías Zunino CM 19 Santiago RomeroCM 17 Christian Oliva LM 14 Gonzalo CastroFW 24 Gonzalo Bergessio FW 18 Sebastián Fernández Substitutes:GK 12 Luis MejíaDF 3 Rodrigo Erramuspe MF 7 Luis Aguiar MF 10 Tabaré Viudez FW 20 Carlos De PenaFW 11 Leandro BarciaFW 23 Pierre WebóManager: Alexander Medina
PEÑAROL: GK 12 Kevin Dawson RB 15 Ezequiel Busquets CB 2 Fabricio Formiliano CB 4 Carlos RodríguezLB 27 Lucas HernándezRM 20 Giovanni González CM 23 Walter GarganoCM 7 Cristian RodríguezLM 19 Agustín Canobbio FW 28 Lucas Viatri FW 26 Gabriel Fernández Substitutes:GK 1 Thiago CardozoDF 25 Carlos MatheuMF 5 Marcel NovickMF 11 Fabián Estoyanoff MF 17 Ignacio LoresMF 10 Maximiliano Rodríguez FW 24 Darwin Núñez Manager: Diego López
Final Since Peñarol, who had the best record in the aggregate table, won the semifinal, they became champions automatically and the final was not played. Nacional became runners-up as the second-placed team in the aggregate table. Both teams qualified for the 2019 Copa Libertadores group stage.
Relegation Relegation was determined at the end of the season by computing an average of the number of points earned per game over the two most recent seasons: 2017 and 2018. El Tanque Sisley was one of the teams relegated to the Segunda División for the following season, as well as the two teams with the lowest average.
Team Relegation 1Peñarol 86 84 170 73 2Nacional 83 85 168 74 3Defensor Sporting 86 58 144 73 4Cerro 53 59 112 74 5 55 55 110 74 6Danubio 46 60 106 74 7Progreso — 49 49 36 8River Plate 45 49 94 73 9Liverpool 37 58 95 74 10Racing 45 47 92 74 11Boston River 52 37 89 73 12Rampla Juniors 50 37 87 74 13Fénix 42 43 85 74 14Torque (R) — 41 41 36 15Atenas (R) — 37 37 36 16El Tanque Sisley (R) 37 — 37 37
References
External links Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol - Campeonato Uruguayo