I checked the list and I think the only Scottish team is Motherwell...

Yeah. Motherwell from Scotland or St. Patricks from Ireland. Either will do.

The draw is on 12:00 GMT.EurosSport will show it.

Hurm...that would be interesting won't it? Conflict of loyalty.

Gee, we're the first team to be drawn...

seems like we'll have to play against FC Zürich. Not the easiest opponent.

Senderos can pay a visit to his hometown then. This is already working out for him.

Jack, you do always look on the bright side of life, ain't you?

Benfica Vs Napoli? Damn it, I like them both!

Most interesting ties (beside Milan):

Everton - Standard Liege
Borussia Dortmund - Udinese
Napoli - Benfica
Sevilla - Salzburg

Some good games there.

Spurs drew Wisla Krakow, which will not be easy at all. While Villa have Litex Lovech, one of the easier ties we could have had, thankfully.

Same with me. But I'm a bit more nostalgic for the ol' Napoli days...

That's a job for Alex Black to take care of!

Now you're making fun of other teams names! You're a disgrace!

I hope we play a Greek team at some point, then I'll pay you to assassinate Alex Black, he's a grade A ****.

I think our group will be this :

AC Milan
Partizan
Hertha Berlin
Spartak Moscow
Beşiktas

I'd love to do that. I hate superhuman comic book heroes!


A group of five teams. UEFA Cup is so lame!

The Super Cup... I've changed my mind about the UEFA Cup; I want us to win and beat the CL winners next August!

That's a good boy. I want the same. In fact, I want everything this season just to get over the loss of not qualifying for the CL. Scudetto plus UEFA Cup, and then the European Super Cup next year. Bring it on!

UEFA CUP 2008-2009: THE MLAN "A" LIST
9/1/2008

MILAN - The list of 25 players: GOALKEEPERS: Dida, Abbiati, Kalac; DEFENDERS: Maldini, Kaladze, Zambrotta, Jankulovski, Favalli, Senderos, Bonera, Darmian, Pasini, Antonini; MIDFIELDERS: Emerson, Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Flamini; ATTACKERS: Pato, Inzaghi, Seedorf, Borriello, Kakà, Shevchenko, Ronaldinho.

Nesta not on the list. They can change it later right??

You usually submit a list before every round. Round 1 is only 2 games, so they'll probably include him in the list for the group stage, should Milan get there.

No, as far as I remember, next time we can submit a list after the first round is after the January transfer window.

Ah, you could be right, yes.

Yup. Next transfer window. January 2009.

I don't think Nesta's exclusion from the list is that big a deal. There's speculation in the Italian press that his injury may mean he'll be out the majority of the season, but the fact that he's already running indicates to me that it won't be that bad.

In any event, traditionally for the initial 2 games and the group games, teams don't always field their strongest 11. Last year, for example, Fiorentina didn't field Montolivo for any of those games and Vieri played more of them than Mutu. Assuming that Milan makes it past the group stage, I expect the A team to be fielded then.

And...ack at Benfica-Napoli. That's hard. I like both teams!

excuse me ? dont be selfish. WE ALL WANT IT TOO !!

Easy for me. I don't like Napoli. Thanks for humiliating us right after we beat inter last year.

i think i'd go for napoli since serie a needs it. otherwise i'd edge out benfica.

Does anybody know if mediaset managed to get the rights for the UEFA Cup? I know R7 mentioned it awhile back but only said they were in negotiations

Here are Benfica's call ups for the Napoli game:

Portieri - Moreira, Moretto e Quim
Difensori - Leo, Luisão, Maxi Pereira, Sydney, Jorge Ribeiro e Miguel Vitor
Centrocampisti - Balboa, Binya, Carlos Martins, Di Maria, Katsouranis, Reyes, Ruben Amorim, Urreta, Yebda
Attaccanti - Nuno Gomes e Suazo

Pablito Aimar has an injury and is still training separately; ditto for David Luiz.

How are Benfica doing in the league? Can they win it this season?

They're comfortably in midtable right now, Jack. They've drawn both games (the Portuguese league has only played 2 so far). One of those draws was against Porto.

HT Litex 1-1 Villa. Litex are a better team than I thought, very composed on the ball, but we've been poor yet still have an away goal (And one that was wrongly disallowed! ) while missing 3 or 4 key players.

Reo-Coker has scored 2 goals in the last 3 days..

FT Litex Lovech 1-3 Villa. They had a player sent off for two yellow cards, then another cleared it off the line with his hand in a hilarious fashion, who was also sent off. Reo-Coker in the first half to equalise. Barry gave us the lead from a penalty, Petrov scored in the 92nd minute in his home country to give us a good victory.

So Napoli will be played at the same time as Milan ?

I wish them luck, I hope they go far in the competition

Brann are leading 2-0 against Deportiva La Coruna, totally outplaying them.
I still hope Brann gets relegated at the end of the season, but if they eliminate Deportivo then that would be a huge victory for Norwegian football.

Funny, I want them out in the group stages. Arrogant little club driven on their past glories (Maradona), their fans are one of the most over the top and violent I've seen. Plus, they're playing Benfica today, more reasons for them to lose.


Thanks for the heads up about your country's league, Lock. I'll try and keep an eye out for these clubs, now that we're full and frontal in the UEFA Cup. I still can't believe it's happening. Then again, we deserved every inch of this, so that figures.

@ Locke ... Is that cookie counter broken ?!

Your missing a biscouti and some caviar from the piranha

The UEFA studio on the Jazeera channel is ALL Milan.

It isn't broken, Tennie hasn't been very generous lately.


@acid, I think Rosenborg has the best chance to make it through, as Brann has a reputation for buckling under pressure and far better teams than Brann have done so at the Riazor...

By the way, Brann translates into "fire" in Norwegian, not an actual flame, but rather a fire.

That's good to hear. The only club I knew of previously from the NPL was of course, Roesenberg. I think they won the league last year. As for Tennie, forget generous, she hasn't been around as much lately. Pity.

PS. You lucky creature, R7. I don't usually seem to get the Jazeera channel whether on satellite or stream.

It begins, then. Our new adventure.

Random Pola factoid: Mario Gomez is the lone top scorer in the UEFA Cup at the moment with 2 goals. I hope we play them further in the tournament, so our management can take a look at them. We were in for Adebayor, Gomez is miles ahead of him.

Dida's first official game in six months. I miss Paolo, he could/should have played a part in the game even as a substitute. Gattuso sitting on the bench meaning business. Bright start but both our strikers taking the slow way forward. Pato makes a good run, but still needs work. Oh, and before I forget.

Forza Milan!

Rosenborg, actually.
And they did win the league in the 06 season, nice...what's the word? Remembered?

Damn, the Milan game has started? And I can't watch it. Grngh.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL

Other HT Results:

Dortmund down against Udinese by 2

Napoli up against Benfica 2-1

3-0 for Sampdoria ... Good to see the Italian sides are doing well

Bellinzona 2-3 Galataray, goal by Kewell and a brace from Baros.

Borac 0-2 Ajax.

5-0 SAMP

Udinese beat Borussia Dortmund in Germany by 2 goals,well done

The result of the another matches in our group was this:

Timişoara-Partizan 1–2
Hertha BSC-St. Patrick's Athletic 2–0
Baník Ostrava-Spartak Moscow 0–1
Beşiktaş-Metalist Kharkiv 1–0

Other results around the globe:

Milan vs FC Zürich (3–1) No comment.
Baník Ostrava vs Spartak Moscow (0–1)
Portsmouth vs Vitória Guimarães (2–0)
Kayserispor vs Paris Saint-Germain (1–2)
Marítimo vs Valencia (0–1)
Dinamo Zagreb vs Sparta Prague (0–0)
Omonia vs Manchester City (1–2) The Brazilian stole the show with two goals. No not Robinho, but Jo.
Young Boys vs Club Brugge (2–2) Huh? Weird names!
Everton vs Standard Liège (2–2)
Napoli vs Benfica (3–2) Forza Benfica!
APOEL vs Schalke 04 (1–4) Pun always intended.
Litex Lovech vs Aston Villa (1–3) Fun time in England, I presume?
Brøndby vs Rosenborg (1–2)
Borac vs Ajax (1–4)
Tottenham Hotspur vs Wisła Kraków (2–1)
Borussia Dortmund vs Udinese (0–2)
Hamburg vs Unirea Urziceni (0–0)

The draw for the group stage of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup will be held at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, at 12:00CET on 7 October 2008. The 40 teams in the draw will be divided into five pots based on their UEFA coefficients.One team from each pot will be drawn for each group, with the restriction that no team may be drawn with one from the same country.

Pot 1

Italy Milan
Spain Sevilla
Spain Valencia
Portugal Benfica
Germany Schalke 04
Russia CSKA Moscow
England Tottenham Hotspur
Germany Hamburg



Pot 2

Germany Stuttgart
the Netherlands Ajax
Greece Olympiacos
Spain Deportivo
Belgium Club Brugge
Russia Spartak Moscow
France Paris Saint-Germain
the Netherlands Heerenveen



Pot 3

Norway Rosenborg
Italy Udinese
the Netherlands Feyenoord
Portugal Braga
the Czech Republic Slavia Prague
England Manchester City
Turkey Galatasaray
Italy Sampdoria



Pot 4

Germany Hertha BSC
Serbia Partizan
France Nancy
England Portsmouth
England Aston Villa
Spain Racing Santander
Denmark Copenhagen
Croatia Dinamo Zagreb



Pot 5

France Saint-Étienne
Germany Wolfsburg
Belgium Standard Liège
the Netherlands Twente
the Netherlands NEC
Ukraine Metalist Kharkiv
Poland Lech Poznań
Slovakia Žilina

Pot 4, damn it.

A group with Hamburg, Brugge, Braga and Zelina will do nicely. I suppose being a 4th seed we aren't even expected to get out of the group stage.