The Kings of Europe and the Draw

The UEFA Cup draw was held today for the group stages and although there are a few “groups of death” one of which we happen to be in, I still strongly believe there aren’t many teams on the level of Sevilla. The draw looks like this:
Group A
Schalke
PSG
Manchester City
Racing Santander
Twente
Group B
Benfica
Olympiacos
Galatasaray
Hertha Berlin
Metalist Kharkiv
Group C
Sevilla
Stuttgart
Sampdoria
Partizan
Standard Liege
Group D
Tottenham
Spartak Moscow
Udinese
Dinamo Zagreb
NEC Nijmegen
Group E
AC Milan
Heerenveen
Braga
Portsmouth
Wolfsburg
Group F
Hamburg
Ajax
Slavia Prague
Aston Villa
MSK Zilina
Group G
Valencia
Club Brugge
Rosenborg
FC Kobenhavn
Saint-Etienne
Group H
CSKA Moscow
Deportivo La Coruna
Feyenoord
AS Nancy-Lorraine
Lech Poznan

Of course we should never write off Valencia, AC Milan, Man City, Tottenham, Ajax or Hamburg who are all strong teams. Even teams such as Feyenoord, Deportivo, Racing, PSG, Olimpiakos, Galatasaray, Aston Villa or Portsmouth as they are also capable of giving top teams a run for their money on any given day.

Our group isn’t necessarily a difficult one but it is tricky. Stuttgart won the Bundesliga year before last and are near the top of the table this year aswell, Sampdoria are an Italian side so naturally they’re really strong defensively, Standard Liege gave Liverpool a scare in the Champions League and are no pushovers, and finally Partizan Belgrade have won 7 out of 7 matches in their respective league.

Stuttgart will travel to El Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán on October 23rd, then we will travel to Belgium on November 6th to face off against Standart Liege, before returning home for the third match against Partizan on December 3rd and finally finishing up the group stages in Italy against Sampdoria which takes place on December 18th.

As the weeks go on I’m getting more and more excited about the UEFA Cup and can’t help but remember our recent success in cup competition. I found this good vid on Youtube from our 2007 victory and every time i watch it i get goosebumps. What a match, Gracias Palop!

In my opinion we still have to be viewed as the team to beat but also just stay focused and play to our style, if we do that I have no doubts we’ll win again.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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