The Apertura 2018 Copa MX is 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 will begin on 24 July 2018 and is scheduled to end on 31 October 2018. Necaxa are the defending champions after defeating Toluca in the Clausura 2018 Final.
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.
Location of the participating teams. Red: Liga MX clubs; Blue: Ascenso MX clubs
Draw
The draw for the tournament took place on 5 June 2018. 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.[1]
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.[2]
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.[2]
The winners of the groups and the seven best second place teams of each group will advance to the Knockout stage.
