UEFA Cup Draw — the Round of 32

By: Laurie | December 19th, 2008

We’re down to the final 32 in the last iteration of the UEFA Cup.

There is a certain fun unpredictability to the UEFA Cup once it hits this point. This is when most of the smallest minnows have gone home, and the third-place finishers from Champions League drop down to hang out with all the people who have been here from the beginning. It’s kind of like throwing a bunch of wild cards into a poker game halfway through.

It’s the sort of thing that makes you (or…well…me) waste brain cells thinking, “Okay, if PSG and Marseille are close to evens in Ligue 1, and PSG beat Twente 4-0, then does the fact that Marseille has drawn Twente in this round mean… And does the fact that Marseille was in Champions League mean they’re better than…? And what about…”

This way madness lies. (Or, as a friend once reminded me, “The transitive property does not apply in soccer.”)

So I’m done thinking about these things. Instead, I’ll turn them over to you to think about. Here’s the draw, cheerfully swiped from Peter over at the Olympiacos blog, who I believe cheerfully swiped it from the UEFA site.

What do you think?

2008/09 UEFA Cup Round of 32
First leg: 18/19 February
Second leg: 26 February

1. Paris Saint-Germain FC (France) v VfL Wolfsburg (Germany)
2. FC København (Denmark) v Manchester City FC (England)
3. NEC Nijmegen (Netherlands) v Hamburger SV (Germany)
4. UC Sampdoria (Italy) v FC Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
5. SC Braga (Portugal) v R. Standard de Liège (Belgium)
6. Aston Villa FC (England) v PFC CSKA Moskva (Russia)
7. KKS Lech Poznań (Poland) v Udinese Calcio (Italy)
8. Olympiacos CFP (Greece) v AS Saint-Etienne (France)
9. ACF Fiorentina (Italy) v AFC Ajax (Netherlands)
10. Aalborg BK (Denmark) v RC Deportivo La Coruña (Spain)
11. Werder Bremen (Germany) v AC Milan (Italy)
12. FC Girondins de Bordeaux (France) v Galatasaray AŞ (Turkey)
13. FC Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) v Valencia CF (Spain)
14. FC Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia) v VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
15. Olympique de Marseille (France) v FC Twente (Netherlands)
16. FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) v Tottenham Hotspur FC (England)

2008/09 UEFA Cup Round of 16
First leg: 12 March
Second leg: 18/19 March

Winners of Match 11 v Winners of Match 8
Winners of Match 6 v Winners of Match 16
Winners of Match 7 v Winners of Match 14
Winners of Match 1 v Winners of Match 5
Winners of Match 13 v Winners of Match 4
Winners of Match 2 v Winners of Match 10
Winners of Match 15 v Winners of Match 9
Winners of Match 3 v Winners of Match 12

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