Olympiacos awaits UEFA Cup draw

By: Peter Katsiris | October 6th, 2008

The eve of the UEFA Cup draw has brought plenty of excitement to Piraeus, as Olympiacos awaits the results of the UEFA Cup draw. The Greek Champions booked their place in the UEFA Cup group stages with an emphatic 5-0 win over Danish club FC Nordsjaelland – 7-0 on aggregate. Now, the task – whatever it might be—is guaranteed to be much stiffer as many big clubs from all over Europe remain in the hunt for UEFA Cup glory.

The draw which will set the UEFA Cup agenda for forty clubs will be completed at the UEFA Headquarters in Nyon, France. This year’s draw contains several representatives from many countries, but the honour of most clubs present goes to Germany, who enters five representatives to this stage of the tournament.

There is no doubt that this year’s edition – coincidentally the last under the name ‘UEFA Cup’ – boasts the most competitive line-up in years. Pot 1 of the draw is a good indication of the field’s depth, as names like AC Milan, Valencia, and Sevila are just a sample of the powerhouses stored in the premier pot. The pot is one of the few that contains several recent winners, with CSKA Moscow and Sevilla dominating recent trips to the UEFA Cup podium.

In pot 2 is where Olympiacos finds itself, alongside several quality sides including clubs like VfB Stuttgart, Ajax Amsterdam, Deportivo La Coruna, and Spartak Moscow. Being placed in the same pot as these teams, Olympiacos is guaranteed to avoid a trip to the teams mentioned.

Pot 3 includes a Balkan rival of the ‘Eruthroleuki’ as Turkish club Galatasaray highlight the third pot. A winner of the UEFA Cup and eventually the annual UEFA Super Cup, the Turkish side are a favourite to progress past the group stages. Historically, the two sides have met on several occasions and produced memorable matches; even setting a Turkish attendance record when they met at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in 2002, more people attended this game than the UEFA Champions League final three years later. Other pot members include Manchester City,Feyenoord, Rosenborg, and Sampdoria.

Pot 4 might be a group of underdogs, but they surely pose a threat to progress to the knockout rounds with English sides leading the push. Aston Villa and Portsmouth are joined by Hertha Berlin, and Partizan Belgrade. A match up with the latter would pitch an Orthodox rivalry with Olympiacos’s sister club Red Star Belgrade’s domestic rivals.

Lastly Pot 5 contains a field of fresh faces as a handful of clubs test the waters of the UEFA Cup group stage for the first time. New faces include Metalist Karkhiv, and Lech Poznan. Other notable clubs are Saint-Etienne, and Wolfsburg.

Pot 1:
Milan (Italy)
Sevilla (Spain)
Valencia (Spain)
Benfica (Portugal)
Schalke 04 (Germany)
CSKA Moscow (Russia)
Tottenham Hotspur (England)
Hamburg (Germany)

Pot 2:
Stuttgart (Germany)
Ajax (Netherlands)
Olympiacos (Greece)
Deportivo (Spain)
Club Brugge (Belgium)
Spartak Moscow (Russia)
Paris Saint-Germain (France)
Heerenveen (Netherlands)

Pot 3:
Rosenborg (Norway)
Udinese (Italy)
Feyenoord (Netherlands)
Braga (Portugal)
Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)
Manchester City (England)
Galatasaray (Turkey)
Sampdoria (Italy)

Pot 4:
Hertha BSC (Germany)
Partizan (Serbia)
Nancy (France)
Portsmouth (England)
Aston Villa (England)
Racing Santander (Spain)
Copenhagen (Denmark)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)

Pot 5:
Saint-Étienne (France)
Wolfsburg (Germany)
Standard Liège (Belgium)
Twente (Netherlands)
NEC (Netherlands)
Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Lech Poznań (Poland)
Žilina (Slovakia)