UEFA Cup Draw Announced

By: chris | October 7th, 2008

Much of the press will go to Milan (this is the fourth story on the ESPN front page, not Soccernet) & the British clubs, but the more intriguing matchups are to be found elsewhere, and none has more potential than Group C.

Sevilla made the leap last year to the Champions League, but they’re back on the ground they dominate, having won 2 out of the last 3 UEFA Cups. Stuttgart has put out a firm first foot in the Bundesliga this year, making strides towards challenging for their own second title in three years. Sampdoria is off to a rough start but have too much quality not to turn it around, while Partizan is one of Europe’s underrated gems, featuring, as ever, a youthful lineup of future stars. Then there’s Standard de Liege, who have made waves in both European competitions this year by bouncing one Merseyside club from the UEFA Cup and pushing the other to its Champions League brink. Truly not a “weak” side in the group.

As for the rest, it’s largely the matchups and plotlines which we’ll be looking forward to: Valencia attempting to exact revenge on their Champions League nemesis Rosenborg; will the UEFA Cup prove to be the death knell for Tottenham; can Martin Jol continue to reign in Germany, aiding greatly in the recapture of his reputation (while Tottenham does the rest); will Udinese continue to thrive and prove themselves to ultimately be the best Italian team; at what point will we realize the gap between the Prem’s Big Four and the rest of the league is enormous and that maybe the Prem isn’t as gargantuan as the British press would like you to believe.

But for now, this is only the half of it, because one eye will have to be kept on the group games while another is kept on the Champions League, waiting for that 3rd best team to trickle down to purgatory. Who knows, maybe Zenit will prove to be the second coming of Sevilla and run away with another. Perhaps Bayern will fall and finally win the UEFA Cup which should’ve been theirs last year. And maybe Bayern and Zenit will meet again in the latter stages, enabling more mafia-types to grab their grapes and make outlandish claims (not that we don’t strongly encourage that sort of thing).

When you really think about it, I guess the UEFA Cup is a bit more than a way to quench our footy thirst between Champions League matchdays and the weekend, eh?