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After a winter break, this week 32 European teams will resume their fight for the UEFA Cup. Eight matches will be played on Wednesday and Thursday.
There are currently 32 teams left in the tournament - 24 advancing from the group stage and 8 joining from the UEFA Champions League, where they finished in third place.
The Lisbon club "Sporting" from Portugal has the most ambitions to win this tournament, as the final will take place at their home stadium - Estadio Jose Alvalade. However, in order to advance to the next stage, "Sporting" first has to beat the Rotterdam-based "Feyenoord", who won the UEFA Cup three years ago.
The current Spanish champion and UEFA Cup holder "Valencia" also has the desire to successfully finish this season. Having almost no chances to defend the "La Liga" title, "Valencia" should now focus on the UEFA Cup matches and try to defend this title.
Among the possible contenders to win this season's UEFA Cup title are also mentioned other famous European clubs such as "Schalke", "Ajax", and "Parma", who have previously achieved this goal.
Wednesday's match pairs:
"Parma" - "Stuttgart" "Sporting" - "Feyenoord" "Austria" - "Athletic" "Partizan" - "Dnipro" "Valencia" - "Steaua" "Ajax" - "Auxerre" "Panathinaikos" - "Sevilla" "Shakhtar" - "Schalke"
Thursday's match pairs:
"CSKA" - "Benfica" "Olympiacos" - "Sochaux" "Dynamo Kyiv" - "Villarreal" "Fenerbahçe" - "Zaragoza" "Aachen" - "Alkmaar" "GAK" - "Middlesbrough" "Heerenveen" - "Newcastle" "Basel" - "Lille"
