The draw for the first round of the UEFA cup took place on Friday, with staff and fans of the home nation clubs waiting with baited breath to find out who they have to overcome if they are to make it to the moneymaking group stage of the tournament.

UEFA CUP SEEDING

Tottenham Hotspur were seeded in the draw after their successful run in the competition last season. The holders Sevilla could face Salzburg should they fail to win their postponed fixture against AEK Athens in the UEFA Champions League. The game was postponed due to the tragic death of defender Antonio Puerta.

British Team Fixtures

Rabotnicki v Bolton Wanderers
Larissa v Blackburn Rovers
Aberdeen v Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Tottenham Hotspur v Anorthosis Famagusta
Everton v Metalist Kharkiv

Sammy Lee takes his Bolton Wanderers side to Macedonia to play Rabotnicki for the first leg, Blackburn Rovers also have an away fixture for the first leg of the first round. Rovers play Greek side Larissa. Tottenham have a home game against Anorthosis Famagusta from Cyprus, the fans could catch a little winter sun on the away trip, which could be their last if their form doesn’t pick up. Everton and Aberdeen both play teams from Ukraine. The toffees play Metalist Kharkiv while the Scottish side play Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Those with the hardest preparation for these fixtures will be the match commentators who will have to learn the pronunciations of the players names to avoid sounding silly on the night.

Full Draw For The 2008 UEFA Cup First Round

Midtjylland v Lokomotiv Moscow
Groningen v Fiorentina
Rabotnicki v Bolton Wanderers
Sevilla/AEK Athens v Red Bull Salzburg
Nurnberg v Rapid Bucharest
Everton v Metalist Kharkiv
Zenit St Petersburg v Standard Liege
Bayer Leverkusen v Uniao Leiria
Villarreal v BATE Borisov
Sion v Galatasaray
Atletico Madrid v Kayseri Erciyesspor
Bordeaux v Tampere United
Panathinaikos v Artmedia Petrzalka
Sparta Prague v Odense
FC Zurich v Empoli
Sochaux v Panionios
Rapid Vienna v Anderlecht
Pacos de Ferreira v AZ Alkmaar
Sampdoria v Aalborg
Spartak Moscow v Hacken
Hammarby v Braga
Larissa v Blackburn Rovers
Mlada Boleslav v Palermo
Dinamo Zagreb v Ajax
Rennes v Lokomotiv Sofia
Brann v Club Brugge
Bayern Munich v Belenenses
Aberdeen v Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Heerenveen v Helsingborgs
Toulouse v CSKA Sofia
Hamburg v Litex Lovech
FK Sarajevo v FC Basel
Austria Vienna v Valerenga
AIK Solna v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Aris Thessaloniki v Real Zaragoza
Dinamo Bucharest v Elfsborg
Tottenham Hotspur v Anorthosis Famagusta
Lens v FC Copenhagen
Getafe v Twente
Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski v Crvena Zvezda

2008 UEFA First Round Fixture Dates

The first leg matches will be played on the 20th of September and the second leg fixtures will be two weeks later on the 4th October.

Looking for the UEFA Cup First Round Draw?

The UEFA Cup first round draw takes place later today and the English clubs involved will find out who they must over come if they are to make the group stage.

Having had a successful UEFA Cup campaign last season Spurs will hope they are seeded to help them avoid some of the bigger teams in the draw.

Blackburn Rovers made the draw after beating MyPa from Finland, Everton will hope that they have a more successful time in Europe this time round, having been dumped out of the Champions League at the first hurdle last time round.

England under-21 manager Stuart Pearce takes a depleted squad to the European under-21 tournament in Holland because at the 11th hour Blackburn Rovers winger David Bentley pulled out of the squad. Bentley cited fatigue as his reason for not wanting to participate in the tournament.

Bentley was an unused member of the senior squad that drew with Brazil and beat Estonia. Bentley claims that he is acting on the advice of members of the senior squad. These players who are much older and much more likely to succumb to fatigue than Bentley, most of whom have had long European campaigns; and probably have a much more hectic behind the scenes schedule. David Beckham would be one such example of a player who would travel to the ends of the Earth and drop everything to play for England.

It could be seen as a club versus country row, Bentley putting his club ahead of his country. However the player believes that he is putting his country first! He believes that not playing this summer will make him fresh next summer when England need him most. That is a massive assumption on the wingers behalf, as it seems that he thinks he will be in the side ahead of a reborn David Beckham, Aaron Lennon or Shaun Wright-Phillips. It could be argued that England need him more now, to help them win the European Championships, if successful he would have done something good for his club as his transfer value would probably go up. Some England fans could use Blackburn manager Mark Hughes’ Welsh nationality as the cause for Bentley’s withdrawal from the squad.

Fatigue has to be the poorest excuse for a lad of Bentley’s age to pull out of the squad. Its not like he is a junior doctor working around the clock to keep patients alive, or a single parent working two jobs just to put food on the table. Bentley has played 51 games of football in nine months for Blackburn and has only recently been brought into the under-21 squad. That’s just 1.3 games per week and that does not include any occasions that Bentley may not have finished a game which happened at least once when he was sent off.

Bentley told a radio station that he had “three decisions; the club could have pulled me out, I could have pulled myself out or I could have faked an injury”. The only decision he had to make was to play for his country or not. He continued saying that he has never played “a 60 game season to go straight in to another one”. In reality he played 57 games this season 15 less than Frank Lampard, Bentley has a creative imagination if he thinks he will play 60 games next season, considering Rovers are not in Europe next season and they have been inactive in the transfer window.

Blackburn Rovers pushed the premiership champions all the way in their FA Cup semi final. Chelsea needed a goal from German midfielder Michael Ballack to secure their place in the New Wembley Final.

Frank Lampard put the blues ahead on sixteen minutes. Didier Drogba held up the play before giving the ball to Ballack who played a through ball for the marauding Frank Lampard who broke through the Rovers defence and put the ball past the outstretched Friedel.

Mark Hughes worked his magic during half-time, Rovers drew level when Jason Roberts got in front of Terry to convert a Henrik Pedersen free-kick.

The decisive goal came in the second half of extra-time, substitute Shaun Wright-Phillips broke down the flank and pulled the ball back and Kalou’s shot rebounded off Warnock in to the path of Michael Ballack who drove the ball in to the Rovers goal. Guaranteeing the dream cup final for the opening of the new Wembley.

The FA Cup Semi Finals are later this week and with Manchester United taking on relegation threatened Watford and Blackburn Rovers plaing Chelsea, it all looks set for a United v Chelsea Final.

If Watford were to use the form book they would be forgiven for thinking that they could beat Roma 14-2 seeing that they beat Portsmouth by double the score that Pompey beat Manchester United by just two day previous. However in reality the Hornets have to compete with some of the world’s most talented players, who managed to embarrass one of Europe’s better sides.

Chelsea who can thank their Russian Billionaire for their recent success, face Blackburn Rovers, the last team that bought the premiership, albeit for a lot less that Roman Abramovich paid. Mark Hughes has a knack of motivating his teams to achieve unexpected results. However the galaxy of stars at Jose Mourinho’s disposal should prove more than a match for the talent that Hughes will field.

So if United beat Watford and Chelsea can dispatch Rovers, the Football Association will have their dream final, between Manchester United and Chelsea. Although the footballing public could be sick of that fixture as the play in the league, and there is the possibility of the two sides meeting in both the UEFA Champions League and FA Cup finals.

Rovers Midfielder Aaron Mokoena thinks that Mark Hughes Blackburn Rovers side have what it takes to get a result against Chelsea this weekend in their FA Cup semi final at Old Trafford.

Mokoena told the Lancashire Telegraph that he believes “Chelsea are a big team. They have fantastic players, but so do we as well,”. He continued with No-one is unbeatable. We are going to go out there, do what we are capable of, and give it our best shot.”

After the replays decided the last two semi finalists would be Chelsea and Manchester United. The Football Association have decided that the FA Cup semi-finals this year will be played at Old Trafford and Villa Park.

The first of the two games will be the fixture between Manchester United and Watford on Saturday 14th April with a kick-off time of 17:30 It will be played at Villa Park and the game will be shown live on the BBC.

The second game will be played at Old Trafford between Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers on Sunday 15th April with a kick-off time of 16:00 with the game being broadcast live on Sky Sports.

The dates of the cup semi-finals clash with the fixture between Manchester United and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as they were due to play that possible Premiership decider on the 15th of April. They game has yet to be re-arranged and could be the last game of the season.

Even though they both face tough replays, the possibility of a Manchester United v Chelsea final still remains following the draw for the FA Cup Semi-Final. England goalkeeper coach Ray Clemence drew Blackburn Rovers out of the hat first and they play the winners of the replay between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

Premiership strugglers Watford will host either league leaders Manchester United or Middlesbrough in their semi-final, as they bid for the opportunity in starring in the first cup final to be held in the redesigned Wembley Stadium.

The draw for the Semi-Final in Full:

Blackburn Rovers v Tottenham Hotspur or Chelsea
Watford v Manchester United or Middlesbrough

Looking for the FA Cup Semi-Final Draw?

Rovers were the first side in the hat for Monday’s draw when they dispatched their Lancashire rivals Manchester City in a 2-0 win at Ewood Park. They took the lead through South African Aaron Mokoena. They youngsters day turned from quickly from ecstasy to agony when he was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Matt Derbyshire sealed the win in injury time ensuring his team were in the hat for the draw on Monday. Blackburn were joined by Watford who only just managed to get past Coca-Cola Championship side Plymouth Argyle.

Bouazza scored when his thunderous shot from a Watford short corner flew past Argyle keeper Luke McCormick. The Championship side fought hard and made the Premiership strugglers work for their entry in to the semi final draw.

Mark Hughes had the last laugh as his Rovers side knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup. He had clashed with Gunners midfielder Cesc Fabregas in the game in London when he was taunted by the Spaniard for Blackburn’s negative style of play.

Arsenal suffered their third defeat in three different competitions having been beaten by PSV in the Champions league and by Chelsea in the Carling Cup final. Defeat in the league against Reading at the weekend would set a record of four defeats in four competitions.

It took a late wonder goal from South African striker Benni McCarthy to give Rovers the lead, in a game that Arsenal should have won had they taken their chances. After being given a torrid time by Drogba at the weekend Philippe Senderos’ week got worse when McCarthy turned him inside out and then whipped the ball into the top corner of Almunia’s goal.