Apart from the quarter-finals, the ties are played in a two-legged format similar to those of European competitions.
If the aggregate score is tied after both games, the team with the higher number of away goals advances.
If the number of away goals is equal in both games, the match is decided by extra time and a penalty shoot-out, if necessary.
In order to reduce the number of participating teams for the first round to 32, a preliminary tournament is played.
Each group played a double round robin schedule for a total of 6 games for each team.