UEFA Cup draw today

By: Martini Extra Dry | October 6th, 2008

The draw for the group stage of the UEFA Cup takes place today, with Villa seeded in the fourth pot, meaning we will definitely face a top seed side. The draw doesn’t allow us to face another English side at this stage, so that rules out Tottenham from the top pot, Man City from pot three and Portsmouth, who are in pot four with us.

This stage works by drawing five teams for each group and you play each team once, in a mixture of two home games and two away games. The hope is to face your tougher opponents at home and the easier ones away.

The top pot contains, along with Spurs; AC Milan, Benfica, CSKA Moskow, Hamburg, Schalke, Sevilla and Valencia. The team I’d most like to play in there is definitely Spurs, as they are on a very poor run of form, but sadly that’s not possible so we will face a tough clash with one of the others.

The matches begin in just over two weeks and finish the week before Christmas, with the top three teams from each of the eight groups qualifying to the knockout stages. At this stage, the 24 teams are joined by the eight teams who finish third in their groups over in the Champions League, giving you 32 teams. The competition is then a standard knockout cup with two-legged ties.

Phew! Get all that?

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Category: Team News

Tags: AC Milan, Aston Villa, Benfica, Champions League, CSKA Moskow, Hamburg, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Schalke, Sevilla, Team News, Tottenham Hotspur, UEFA Cup, Valencia

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• James I |  October 7th, 2008 at 1:39 am

  
  
  

  Could someone please explain these rankings to me. Most of the teams in pot one make sense - being former winners etc. But how do Spurs qualify. I also have no qualms with Villa being seeded so low - we haven’t been in the competition for nearly a decade. But Standard Leige are in pot 5!!! They came down from the Champions League qualifying, but are seeded lower than us.

  Posted from United Kingdom

  

• areallaticfromthesouth |  October 7th, 2008 at 2:57 am

  
  
  

  James the rankings are all based on previous European appearances and success.

  The draw has been made.

  http://oldhamathleticarethereallatics.blogspot.com

  Posted from United Kingdom

  

• Mike |  October 7th, 2008 at 4:54 am

  
  
  

  Villa has a tough road to hoe with Ajax and Hamburg. I like Group A as the Group of Death, but this might be a close second.
  http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/10/uefa-cup-draw-tasty-treat.html

  Posted from United States

  

• Chris |  October 7th, 2008 at 6:07 am

  
  
  

  I am TOTALLY jonesing that HSV have drawn Villa and Ajax, but at least they are at home.

  Posted from United States

  

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