Portsmouth to meet AC Milan in UEFA Cup
442 Staff - Tuesday 07 October 2008, 11:54
Portsmouth have been drawn in the same UEFA Cup group as Italian giants AC Milan.
The FA Cup holders needed extra time in the last round to eventually dispose of Portugese side Guimaraes but have been rewarded for their endeavours with a tie against the 2007 Champions League winners as well as Heerenveen, SC Braga and Vfl Wolfsburg.
Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa have been grouped with Ajax and Martin Jol's Bundesliga leaders Hamburg, although Spurs - bottom of the Premier League - have been handed a kinder draw, with Roman Pavlyuchenko's former team Spartak Moscow and Udinese likely to be their toughest opponents.
Manchester City have not been so fortunate. They will have to overcome Schalke 04, Paris St Germain, Racing Santander and FC Twente, managed by former England coach Steve McClaren, to progress to the knockout phase of the competition.
Each side is in a five-team group and will play two opponents at home and the other two away. Three teams from each group qualify.
"We are playing clubs from strong football leagues in the Netherlands, Portugal, England and Germany so it will be interesting," AC Milan's organising director Umberto Gandini told Reuters.
"On the other hand we are a top seeded club, we think we have the ability to go through this round and that's our goal.
"Serie A remains our priority but at the end of the day this is still an international trophy, and one we haven't won before. Winning it also gets you into the UEFA Super Cup so in that sense it's worth a lot to us."
Milan will begin the Group Stage with an away trip to Heerenveen on October 23, with their other away match coming against European newcomers Portsmouth.
"It's fantastic for all our fans, being the first time in Europe and getting drawn against AC Milan," said Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie.
"Overall, it's a good balanced group and the fact that it's a group format rather than a knock-out match against AC Milan means we've got half a chance."
REVIVAL HOPES
Tottenham hope a good run in Europe could help to revive their domestic fortunes, having taken just two points from this season's opening seven matches.
"I'm sure we will do well and will use the UEFA Cup to get our confidence back," said Tottenham's director of football Damien Comolli. "I think if there is any positive result that gives us confidence we will take it."
Spurs face a difficult start to their group with a visit to Udinese but they avoided a trip to Moscow -- instead playing Spartak at home in their final group match on December 18.
"I wouldn't have minded going to Moscow -- I like the city and as people know I like the players," said Comolli who was instrumental in Tottenham's signing of cup-tied striker Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak.
"Playing Udinese away will be difficult though. They are doing very well and they are technically very strong but we've got a few games to play before that so we are just trying to get positive results now rather than thinking long term."
Seville board member Manuel Vizcaino Fernandez was optimistic that his club would secure one of the three top places needed to progress to the last 32.
"We knew this year's draw would be especially difficult but I think if we play in our normal way we can get to the next round," Vizcaino told Reuters.
"We are considered one of the big teams in Europe now thanks to what we achieved in the UEFA Cup, so although we treat all competitions equally this one has special importance in terms of our history."
2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage draw:
GROUP A
Schalke 04 (Germany)
Paris St Germain (France)
Manchester City (England)
Racing Santander (Spain)
Twente Enschede (Netherlands)
GROUP B
Benfica (Portugal)
Olympiakos Piraeus (Greece)
Galatasaray (Turkey)
Hertha Berlin (Germany)
Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
GROUP C
Sevilla (Spain)
VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
Sampdoria (Italy)
Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
Standard Liege (Belgium)
GROUP D
Tottenham Hotspur (England)
Spartak Moscow (Russia)
Udinese (Italy)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
NEC Nijmegen (Netherlands)
GROUP E
AC Milan (Italy)
Heerenveen (Netherlands)
Braga (Portugal)
Portsmouth (England)
VfL Wolfsburg (Germany)
GROUP F
Hamburg SV (Germany)
Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)
Aston Villa (England)
Zilina (Slovakia)
GROUP G
Valencia (Spain)
Club Bruges (Belgium)
Rosenborg Trondheim (Norway)
FC Copenhagen (Denmark)
St Etienne (France)
GROUP H
CSKA Moscow (Russia)
Deportivo Coruna (Spain)
Feyenoord (Netherlands)
AS Nancy (France)
Lech Poznan (Poland)
Fixture schedule:
Matchday 1
October 23
Matchday 2
November 6
Matchday 3
November 27
Matchday 4
December 3 & 4
Matchday 5
December 17 & 18
First knockout round
First legs: February 18 & 19, 2009
Second legs: February 26
Second knockout round
First legs: March 12
Second legs: March 18 & 19
Quarter-finals:
First legs: April 9
Second legs: April 16
Semi-finals:
First legs: April 30
Second legs: May 7
Final - Sukru Saracoglu stadium, Istanbul
Wednesday May 20, 2009
LATEST EUROPEAN FOOTBALL NEWS