© EuroFootball.com
Last week, after the surprising first stage competition ended, the draws for the group stage of the 2005/06 UEFA Cup were held on Tuesday at the UEFA headquarters in Switzerland, in the city of Nyon, dividing 40 teams into five groups of eight each.
Defending champions, Moscow's "CSKA", along with Lithuanian D.Šembera, are placed in Group F, which includes 2004 finalist "Marseille", Dutch "Heerenveen", and two teams from Eastern Europe - Bulgaria's Sofia "Levski" and Romania's Bucharest "Dinamo".
Group H seems to be one of the strongest and most interesting. It consists of R.Poškaus's St. Petersburg "Zenit", frequent European tournament participants Istanbul's "Besiktas", Spain's "Sevilla", England's "Bolton", and Setubal's "Vitoria" from Portugal. "Monaco" and "Hamburger" seem to have luck on their side in Group A, where they will face less threatening opponents like Prague's "Slavia" and Stavanger's "Viking", with Sofia's "CSKA" potentially causing an upset.
In Group B, A.Skarbalius's "Brondby" will compete against Russian champions Moscow's "Lokomotiv", Catalonia's Barcelona "Espanyol", Italy's "Palermo", and Petach-Tikva's "Maccabi". The eliminated "Sporting" club with T.Žvirgždaskas will be in Group C, alongside Berlin's "Hertha", France's "Lens", Genoa's "Sampdoria", and Bucharest's "Steaua".
The third club in the tournament, Romania's capital Bucharest's "Rapid", will compete in a fairly interesting Group G with Germany's "Stuttgart", Thessaloniki's "PAOK", Donetsk's "Shakhtar", and France's "Rennes". In Group E, one of the tournament favorites, "Roma", will face off against "Basel", Belgrade's "Crvena Zvezda", "Strasbourg", and Norway's "Tromso".
Group D seems to be the most evenly matched - last year's European standout, Alkmaar's "AZ", will face Ukraine's tough "Dnipro", England's "Middlesbrough", Zurich's "Grasshopper", and Bulgaria's Lovech's "Litex".
All clubs will play four matches in the groups, and later, through automated draws, it will be determined who they will play at home and away. The top three teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, where they will be joined by clubs who have been eliminated from the Champions League. The final will be held on May 10, 2006 at Eindhoven's "Phillips" stadium.
