2019–20 Liga Primera de Nicaragua

The 2019–20 Liga Primera de Nicaragua season was divided into two tournaments (Apertura and Clausura) and will determine the 73rd and 74th champions in the history of the Liga Primera de Nicaragua, the top division of football in Nicaragua. The Apertura tournament was played in the second half of 2019, while the Clausura was played in the first half of 2020.

Liga Primera de Nicaragua

Season	2019–20
Champions	Apertura: Real Estelí Clausura: Real Estelí
Relegated	Deportivo Las Sabanas
CONCACAF League	Real Estelí Managua
Matches played	196
Goals scored	459 (2.34 per match)
Top goalscorer	Apertura: Carlos Félix (10 goals) Clausura: Fernando Villalpando (10 goals)
Biggest home win	Apertura: Managua 5–0 Real Madriz (26 October 2019) Clausura: Walter Ferretti 7–0 Chinandega (29 March 2020)
Biggest away win	Apertura: Chinandega 1–4 Real Estelí (15 September 2019) Chinandega 0–3 Deportivo Las Sabanas (6 October 2019) Clausura: Real Madriz 0–2 Real Estelí (25 January 2020) Real Estelí 0–2 Managua (8 February 2020) Deportivo Las Sabanas 0–2 Walter Ferretti (15 March 2020) Chinandega 1–3 Real Estelí (12 April 2020)
Highest scoring	Apertura: Managua 3–3 Chinandega (16 October 2019) Walter Ferretti 5–1 Deportivo Ocotal (9 November 2019) Clausura: Walter Ferretti 7–0 Chinandega (29 March 2020)
← 2018–19 2020–21 → All statistics correct as of 9 May 2020.

The league was one of the only football leagues in the world, along with the Belarus,^[1][2][3] that did not suspend their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4][5][6]

Format

The Apertura play-off format was changed from previous years, while the Clausura will use the same 4-team play-off format. For the Apertura, the top four teams from the regular stage advanced to a "quadrangular" double-round robin instead of a play-off stage. The regular stage and quadrangular winners would have played to decide the tournament's champion, but ultimately the same team won both and the final was not necessary. The same format was recently adopted by the Costa Rican Primera División, but for both half seasons.

Team information

A total of ten teams contested the league, including nine sides from the 2018–19 Primera División, and one side from the 2018–19 Segunda División.

UNAN Managua finished last in the aggregate table and were relegated to the Segunda División. The champions from the Segunda División, Deportivo Las Sabanas were promoted in their place.

The 9th place team in the aggregate table, Chinandega FC, faced the second place team from the Segunda División, FC Gutiérrez, in a playoff for a spot in the Primera División. Chinandega won 4–3 over two legs, meaning Chinandega remained in Primera División.

Promotion and relegation

Promoted from Segunda División as of July, 2019.

• Champions: Deportivo Las Sabanas

Relegated to Segunda División as of July, 2019.

• Last Place: UNAN Managua

Stadia and locations

 

 

Chinandega

 

Deportivo Las Sabanas

 

Deportivo Ocotal

 

Diriangén

 

Juventus Managua

 

Managua

 

Municipal Jalapa

 

Real Estelí

 

Real Madriz

 

Walter Ferretti

class=notpageimage|

Locations of the 2019–20 Liga Primera teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Chinandega	Chinandega	Estadio Efraín Tijerino	3,000
Deportivo Las Sabanas	Las Sabanas	Municipal de Las Sabanas	1,000
Deportivo Ocotal	Ocotal	Estadio Roy Fernando Bermúdez	3,000
Diriangén	Diriamba	Estadio Cacique Diriangén	8,500
Juventus Managua	Managua	Estadio Olímpico del IND Managua	15,000
Managua	Managua	Estadio Olímpico del IND Managua	15,000
Municipal Jalapa	Jalapa	Estadio Alejandro Ramos	1,000
Real Estelí	Estelí	Estadio Independencia	5,000
Real Madriz	Somoto	Estadio Solidaridad	3,000
Walter Ferretti	Managua	Estadio Olímpico del IND Managua	15,000

Managerial changes

During the Apertura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Diriangen FC	Mauricio Cruz	Sacked	September 2019	Flavio da Silva	September 2019	9th (Apertura 2019)
CD Ocotal	Mario Alfaro	Sacked	October 2019	Marcos Rivera (Interim)	October 2019	10th (Apertura 2019)
CD Ocotal	Marcos Rivera	Interimship finished	October 2019	Reynaldo Clavasquín	October 2019	10th (Apertura 2019)
ART Jalapa	Leonidas Rodríguez	Sacked	October 2019	Angel Orellana	October 2019	9th (Apertura 2019)
Real Esteli	Sergio Ivan Rodriguez	Resigned	November 2019	Holver Flores ‘’’Interim’’’	November 2019	3rd (Apertura 2019)
Real Madriz	Miguel Angel Sanchez	Resigned	November 2019	Carlos Matamoros ‘’’Interim’’’	November 2019	9th (Apertura 2019)

Between the Aperutra and Clasura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Juventus Managua	Roberto Armando Chanampe	Sacked	December 2019	Héctor Medina	December 2019	TBD (Apertura 2019)
Real Madriz	Carlos Matamoros	Interimship finished	December 2019	Juan Ramirez	January 2020	TBD (Apertura 2019)

Apertura

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsors
ART Municipal Jalapa	Leonidas Rodríguez	Luis Manuel Galeano	Joma	Agrotris
Chinandega	Reyna Espinoza	Lester Espinoza	Nil	Nil
Diriangén FC	Mauricio Cruz	Jason Coronel	Joma	Claro, Ocal, Victoria frost
Juventus Managua	Roberto Chanampe	Darwin Guity	TBD	TBD
Managua	Emilio Aburto	Cristiano Fernández da Lima	Joma	Brini
Ocotal	Mario Alfaro	Guillermo Espino	Nil	Alcadia Ocotal
Real Estelí	Sergio Ivan Rodriguez	Jason Casco	Kappa	Beco, Movi star, La Curaçao, Banpro, Vitalsis
Real Madriz	Miguel Angel Sanchez	Alvaro Bermúdez	TBD	Alcadia Somoto
Deportivo Las Sabanas	Luis Vega	Marvin Fletes	Joma	Nil
Walter Ferretti	Henry Urbina	René Huete	Umbro	Claro, Iniser, Disnorte Dissur

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Walter Ferretti	18	9	6	3	23	14	+9	33	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
2	Diriangén	18	9	5	4	25	15	+10	32
3	Real Estelí	18	8	4	6	26	14	+12	28	Advance to Playoffs (Quarterfinals)
4	Managua	18	7	6	5	35	25	+10	27
5	Juventus Managua	18	6	6	6	21	18	+3	24
6	Deportivo Las Sabanas	18	6	5	7	17	21	−4	23
7	Chinandega	18	6	4	8	17	30	−13	22
8	Deportivo Ocotal	18	5	6	7	18	26	−8	21
9	Real Madriz	18	3	10	5	17	25	−8	19
10	Municipal Jalapa	18	2	6	10	12	23	−11	12

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw.

Results

Home \ Away	CHI	DLS	DPO	DIR	JVM	MAN	MCJ	REE	RMA	WAF
Chinandega	—	0–3	2–1	0–2	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–4	2–1	1–1
Deportivo Las Sabanas	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	0–0	4–1	3–0	1–0	0–2	1–2
Deportivo Ocotal	3–0	1–1	—	1–2	2–0	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–1	1–2
Diriangén	0–1	4–0	0–0	—	2–1	2–2	2–0	2–0	2–0	0–0
Juventus Managua	1–1	0–1	4–0	3–1	—	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	0–2
Managua	3–3	4–0	3–0	2–0	2–2	—	4–1	0–3	5–0	0–1
Municipal Jalapa	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–2	—	0–0	1–1	0–1
Real Estelí	4–0	3–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	2–1	0–2	—	1–1	0–1
Real Madriz	1–1	0–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–2	1–1	2–1	—	2–1
Walter Ferretti	1–2	1–0	5–1	1–3	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–1	0–0	—

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals

Bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semi-finals							Finals
						4	Managua (p)	2	2	4 (5)
	4	Managua (p)	0 (7)			1	Walter Ferretti	2	2	4 (3)
	5	Juventus Managua	0 (6)										4	Managua	1	0	1
													3	Real Esteli (a.e.t.)	0	2	2
						3	Real Esteli (a.e.t.)	0	1	1
	3	Real Esteli	1			2	Diriangén	0	1	1
	6	Las Sabanas	0

Key: (a) = Wins because of away goals rule, (a.e.t.) = Wins after extra time in second leg, (p) = Wins after penalty shoot-out.

Quarterfinals

30 November 2019

Managua	0 – 0	Juventus Managua
Penalties
	7 – 6

Estadio Nacional, Managua

Managua progressed.

---

30 November 2019

Real Esteli	1 – 0	Las Sabanas
Vinicius Da Souza   40'

Estadio Independencia, Estelí

Real Estelí progressed.

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Real Esteli	1–1 (a)	Diriangén	0–0	1–1
Managua F.C.	4–4 (5–3 p)	Walter Ferretti	2–2	2–2 (a.e.t.)

6 December 2019

Real Esteli	0 – 0	Diriangén

Estadio Independencia, Esteli

---

9 December 2019

Diriangén	1 – 1	Real Esteli
Luis Coronel   26'		Ayerdis   36'

Estadio Cacique, Diriangén

Referee: Rodolfo Paiz

1–1, Real Estelí won on away goals.

5 December 2019

Managua F.C.	2 – 2	Walter Ferretti
Christiano Fernandez   17' Carlos Felix   67'		Rene Huete   14' Leandro Figueroa   59'

---

9 December 2019

Walter Ferretti	2 – 2	Managua F.C.
Pedro Dos Santos   55' Dshon Forbes   92'		Christiano Fernandez   70' Erick Mendoza   85'

Estadio Nacional, Managua

4–4, Managua won 5–3 on penalties.

Final

16 December 2019

6:00pm

Managua F.C.	1 – 0	Real Esteli
Pablo Gallego   32'

Estadio Nacional, Managua

Referee: Bayardo Ulises Juárez

---

21 December 2019

7:00pm

Real Esteli	2 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Managua F.C.
Jaime Ayala   37' Ricardo Rivas   98'

Estadio Independencia, Esteli

Referee: Nitzar Sandoval

Real Estelí won 2–1 on aggregate.

Apertura 2019 champions
Real Esteli F.C. 15th title

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[7]
1.	Carlos Félix	Managua	10
2.	Robinson Luiz	Juventus Managua	7
	Ulises Rayo	Real Madriz
4.	Christiano	Managua	6
	Luis Galeano	Municipal Jalapa
	Pablo Gállego	Managua
	Eulises Pavón	Juventus Managua

Records

• Top goalscorer: Mexican Carlos Felix (10 goals)
• Most goals scored: Managua FC (35 goals)
• Fewest goals scored: ART Jalapa (12 goals)
• Fewest goals conceded : Walter Ferretti and Real Esteli (14 goals)
• Most goals conceded : Chinandega (30 goals)

Clausura

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsors
ART Municipal Jalapa	Angel Orellana	Luis Manuel Galeano	Joma	Agrotris
Chinandega	Reyna Espinoza	Lester Espinoza	Nil	Nil
Diriangén FC	Flavio da Silva	Jason Coronel	Joma	Claro, Ocal, Victoria frost
Juventus Managua	Hector Medina	Darwin Guity	TBD	TBD
Managua	Emilio Aburto	Cristiano Fernández da Lima	Joma	Brini
Ocotal	Reynaldo Clavasquín	Guillermo Espino	Nil	Alcadia Ocotal
Real Estelí	Holver Flores	Jason Casco	Kappa	Beco, Movi star, La Curaçao, Banpro, Vitalsis
Real Madriz	Juan Ramirez	Alvaro Bermúdez	TBD	Alcadia Somoto
Deportivo Las Sabanas	Luis Vega	Marvin Fletes	Joma	Nil
Walter Ferretti	Henry Urbina	René Huete	Umbro	Claro, Iniser, Disnorte Dissur

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Managua	18	13	3	2	34	15	+19	42	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
2	Real Estelí	18	10	5	3	29	11	+18	35
3	Diriangén	18	10	5	3	22	11	+11	35	Advance to Playoffs (Quarterfinals)
4	Walter Ferretti	18	9	3	6	31	18	+13	30
5	Municipal Jalapa	18	6	5	7	17	21	−4	23
6	Juventus Managua	18	5	6	7	23	23	0	21
7	Chinandega	18	5	3	10	18	31	−13	18
8	Real Madriz	18	5	2	11	15	27	−12	17
9	Deportivo Ocotal	18	4	4	10	14	26	−12	16
10	Deportivo Las Sabanas	18	2	6	10	11	31	−20	12

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw.

Results

Home \ Away	CHI	DLS	DPO	DIR	JVM	MAN	MCJ	REE	RMA	WAF
Chinandega	—	3–0	2–3	0–1	4–0	0–1	1–0	1–3	2–1	1–1
Deportivo Las Sabanas	1–1	—	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	2–1	0–2
Deportivo Ocotal	1–0	1–1	—	0–0	0–0	3–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	0–1
Diriangén	3–0	1–2	2–0	—	1–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	3–1	2–1
Juventus Managua	1–1	5–0	0–1	3–0	—	1–2	3–2	0–0	2–0	4–1
Managua	1–0	4–1	2–1	2–1	4–2	—	6–1	1–1	3–1	1–0
Municipal Jalapa	0–1	1–0	2–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	—	1–2	1–0	2–0
Real Estelí	5–1	1–0	5–0	0–0	0–0	0–2	2–0	—	4–0	0–0
Real Madriz	2–0	4–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–2	—	1–2
Walter Ferretti	7–0	2–0	2–1	1–2	4–1	0–1	2–2	1–0	4–0	—

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals

Bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semi-finals							Finals
						3	Diriangén	0	0	0
	3	Diriangén	1			2	Real Estelí	1	0	1
	6	Juventus Managua	0										2	Real Estelí	1	3	4
													1	Managua	1	1	2
						4	Walter Ferretti	0	2	2
	4	Walter Ferretti	5			1	Managua	0	4	4
	5	Municipal Jalapa	1

Key: (a) = Wins because of away goals rule, (a.e.t.) = Wins after extra time in second leg, (p) = Wins after penalty shoot-out.

Quarterfinals

22 April 2020

Diriangén	1 – 0	Juventus Managua
Laureiro   63'

Diriangén progressed.

---

22 April 2020

Walter Ferretti	5 – 1	Municipal Jalapa
Forbes   7', 48', 53' García   45' Figueroa   90+2'		Galeano   52' (pen.)

Walter Ferretti progressed.

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Diriangén	0–1	Real Estelí	0–1	0–0
Walter Ferretti	2–4	Managua	0–0	2–4

25 April 2020

Diriangén	0 – 1	Real Estelí
		Acevedo   74'

---

29 April 2020

Real Estelí	0 – 0	Diriangén

Real Estelí won 1–0 on aggregate.

26 April 2020

Walter Ferretti	0 – 0	Managua

---

29 April 2020

Managua	4 – 2	Walter Ferretti
Quinto   3' Villalpando   21' (o.g.) Peralta   70' Gállego   83'		Villalpando   7' Calero   24'

Managua won 4–2 on aggregate.

Final

2 May 2020

Real Estelí	1 – 1	Managua
López   64'		Gállego   69'

---

9 May 2020

Managua	1 – 3	Real Estelí
Félix   84'		Rosas   48' Ayerdis   70' López   75'

Real Estelí won 4–2 on aggregate.

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[8]
1.	Fernando Villalpando	Walter Ferretti	10
2.	Pablo Gállego	Managua	8
3.	Christiano	Managua	6
	Leandro Figueroa	Walter Ferretti
	Dshon Forbes	Walter Ferretti
	Ulises Rayo	Real Madriz

Discipline

• Most yellow cards: 8^[8]
  •   Daniel Rodríguez (Chinandega)

• Most red cards: 2^[8]
  •   Jonathan Moncada (Deportivo Ocotal)

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Managua (Q)	36	20	9	7	69	40	+29	69	CONCACAF League preliminary round^[a]
2	Diriangén	36	19	10	7	47	26	+21	67
3	Real Estelí (Q)	36	18	9	9	55	25	+30	63	CONCACAF League round of 16^[b]
4	Walter Ferretti	36	18	9	9	54	32	+22	63
5	Juventus Managua	36	11	12	13	44	41	+3	45
6	Chinandega	36	11	7	18	35	61	−26	40
7	Deportivo Ocotal	36	9	10	17	32	52	−20	37
8	Real Madriz	36	8	12	16	32	52	−20	36
9	Municipal Jalapa (O)	36	8	11	17	29	44	−15	35	Relegation play-offs
10	Deportivo Las Sabanas (R)	36	8	11	17	28	52	−24	35	Relegated to Segunda División

Source: Soccerway Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(O) Play-off winners; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. As Apertura and Clausura runners-up (NCA2)
2. As Apertura and Clausura champions (NCA1)

Relegation play-offs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Deportivo Masaya	3–4	Municipal Jalapa	2–1	1–3

30 April 2020

Deportivo Masaya	2 – 1	Municipal Jalapa
Rocha   72' Gutiérrez   89'		Coelho   6'

---

4 May 2020

Municipal Jalapa	3 – 1	Deportivo Masaya
M. García   19' Ramos   27' Colindres   87'	Report	Guevara   60'

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in the 2019–20 season. The following players:

1. Have played at least one game for the respective club.
2. Have not been capped for the Nicaragua national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace

A new rule was introduced this season, that clubs can have four foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or a player/s is released and it is before the close of the season transfer window.

ART Jalapa   Gabriel Coelho   Ronaldo Pabon   Juan Daniel González   Edder Mondragón   Eder García Chinandega   Brayan Cañate   Marlon Barrios   Esteban Lozada   Duver Quinonez   Cristhian Izaguirre Diriangén   Carlos Tórres     Miguel Angel Pucharella   Yeison Esquivel     Bernardo Gradilla   Jorge Vargas Palacio   Bernando Laureiro Juventus Managua   Lucas Reynoso     Rafael de Almeida     Robinson Luiz     Rafael Vieira   Armando Valdez     Alexander Moreno   Héctor "El Tanque"Vega   Fernando Insaurralde Managua   Cristiano Fernández da Lima   Marel Álvarez   Carlos Felix Gámez   Rodolfo Forbes     Pablo Gállego   Sandro Cutino

Ocotal   Allan Gutiérrez   Kenverlen López   Brayan Cantillo Lucumi   Diego Arismendi     Jerney Vente   Miguel Batalla   Kevin Meraz Real Estelí   Lucio Barroca   Vinicius da Souza     Jesús Leal     Marco Granados     Jaime Ayala     Taufic Guarch   Fabrizio Tavano Real Madriz   Daniel Suazo Guerrero   Pedro Aguirre   Josué Ramírez Asprilla     Fernando Ramírez Pahua   Andres Garzon   Bryan Viveros Deportivo Las Sabanas   Carlos Mosquera   Edson Contreras   Luis Carbajal   Rogelio Espinoza Walter Ferretti   Rodrigo Hernández     Jefferson de Araujo     Leandro Figueroa   Pedro Dos Santos   Fernando Villalpando   Nikita Solodchenko   Juan Camilio Rodriguez

  (player released during the Apertura season)   (player released between the Apertura and Clausura seasons)   (player released during the Clausura season)

References

1. "The country which does not fear COVID-19: "These things happen"". Be Soccer. 28 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
2. "Belarus league plays on amid coronavirus". BBC Sport.
3. "Last league standing: Belarusian football basks in new-found popularity". TheGuardian.com. 29 March 2020.
4. Flores, Omar (26 March 2020). "Mexicans players in Nicaragua play through coronavirus outbreak as fear, uncertainty linger". ESPN FC. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
5. Wagner, James (14 April 2020). "Looking for a Full Sports Calendar? Try Nicaragua". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
6. "ФФТ ПРИОСТАНОВИЛА ВСЕ ФУТБОЛЬНЫЕ СОРЕВНОВАНИЯ ДО 10 МАЯ". fft.tj/ (in Russian). Tajikistan Football Federation. 25 April 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
7. "Clausura Top Scorers". Soccerway. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
8. "Clausura Top Scorers". Soccerway. Retrieved 1 April 2020.