In its farewell season once again the Uefa Cup offered surprise and tight decisions in the group-stage. For the last time five clubs faced each other in the groups with only three places available for promotion. Apparently, some of the prominent teams did not make it.
Group A for anxious
Schalke 04 had to watch and hope for aid from already qualified Manchester City and Twente Enschede. However, neither the Citizens (1:3 against Racing Santander) nor the Dutch side (0:4 against Paris St. Germain) were able to beat their opponents. Finally, in a photofinish the goal-difference decided in favour of PSG.
Group B instead of Champions League
With Galatasaray Istanbul, Olympiacos Piraeus and Benfica Lisbon three former Champions Legue participants were seeded into group B together with Hertha BSC and mysterious Metalist Kharkiv from Ukraine. Three 1:0-victories and a goalless draw secured the Ukrainians the top-spot. While Galatasaray was already qualified and Benfica at the bottom of the table the game Olympiacos – Hertha became decisive. The Greek side sealed their third place with a 4:0.
Sevilla surprisingly fails
In Group C Standard Liege has already won their first place even before the last round. Out of the trio FC Sevilla, Sampdoria Genoa and VfB Stuttgart astoundingly the twice Uefa Cup winners Sevilla got kicked out of the tournament. The Spanish lost in Genoa, while Stuttgart won 3:0 against Liege. Partizan Belgrade finished last after disappointingly losing all of their four games and scoring only one goal.
Spurs go through
The 2:2-draw against Spartak Moscow proved to be enough for Tottenham to reach the knock-out-stage of this year’s Uefa Cup. The Russians were not as lucky. NEC Nijmegen surprisingly beat already qualified Udinese Calcio and snatched the third spot in Group D. At the bottom of the table Dinamo Zagreb had already played their four games and missed promotion.
Wolfsburg defends top-spot in Group E
VfL Wolfsburg finished first after a draw against AC Milan. The 2:2 also prolonged the unbeaten run of both teams in this year’s Uefa Cup. Further, Wolfsburg Manager Felix Magath can be proud of his team scoring the most goals (13) during the group stage. With the third place for promotion already given away to Sporting Braga, Portsmouth’s victory against Heerenveen proved worthless for the FA-Cup-Winners.
Aston Villa only finishes third
Aston Villa failed in their attempt to win Group F and lost in Hamburg against the HSV who finally climbed top of the table. With Ajax Amsterdam joining Villa and HSV this group has been far off any surprises. MSK Zilina and Slavia Prague were left without a chance.
FC Copenhagen completes the trio
With a 1:0-victory in Bruges Danish side FC Copenhagen reached the knock-out stage and joined AS St. Etienne and FC Valencia who both reached the next round unbeaten. Despite St.Etienne’s weak performances in their domestic league their European campaign was good enough for finishing first. Valencia became second with only one victory. At the bottom of the Rosenborg Trondheim sadly recalls the days winning one Norwegian title after the other and playing in the Champions League.
Disastrous Feyenoord
Group H offered some surprise: Feyenoord Rotterdam disgraced itself by losing all four games and a shameful goal-difference of 1:10. Thus, their performance was the worst of all teams participating in the group-stage. In opposition, Lech Poznan snatched the third place from AS Nancy with a victory in their last game. Once again they stunned their fans till the very end before reaching the next stage. CSKA Moscow scored 12 goals in four games and therefore finished first with Deportivo LA Coruna becoming second.
The top-3 of each group will be joined by the third placed teams of the Champions League Groups in the knock-out stages.
Here you find the draw:
The Rounds of the last 32 and last 16 in the Uefa Cup 2008/09
