One day after that of the Champions League, the draw for the First Round of the UEFA Cup 2008-09 took place in Monaco Friday.

Lots of teams involved, but of course right now we’re only concerned with the Serie A clubs, which didn’t fare too badly to be quite honest.
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2008/09 UEFA Cup
First Round
to be played September 18 and October 02

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	Dortmund	vs	Udinese
	AC Milan	vs	Zürich
	Sampdoria	vs	Kaunas
	Napoli	vs	Benfica

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AC Milan probably have it easiest facing against FC Zürich, who came in 3^rd last year in the Swiss Super League (after having won it in 2006 and 2007). Some of the Rossoneri will remember their stadium (Letzigrund), because Italy played two of their Euro 2008 games there (vs. Romania and France). Looking back at ancient history one also finds that, believe it or not, Zürich also managed to reach the Semi-finals of the European Champions Cup (now called UEFA Champions League) in 1964 and 1977. Ya, we’re all thinking the same thing: eons ago.

Sampdoria will play against FBK Kaunas, current Lithuanian champions. Wow… Lithuania? Easy right? Not so much. FYI, these guys eliminated Glasgow Rangers in the UCL second qualifying round (2-1 aggregate), then went on to lose 0-4 aggregate to Aalborg. Hard to gauge therefore. With Antonio Cassano in fine form though, Walter Mazzarri’s boys should breeze through.

As for Udinese and Napoli, well… the draw could have been better. The North-Eastern Bianconeri were a seeded team, but still managed to pick Borussia Dortmund (a team with a prestigious football past, but which in the past 5-6 years has been doing sh*t), while the Azzurri probably got one of the toughest opponents in SL Benfica (who by the way just signed striker David Suazo from Inter today).
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Full UEFA Cup First Round Draw
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APOEL	vs.	Schalke
Nordsjælland	vs.	Olympiacos
Slaven	vs.	CSKA Moskva
Brøndby	vs.	Rosenborg
Cherno More	vs.	Stuttgart
Rennes	vs.	Twente
Borac	vs.	Ajax
Tottenham	vs.	Wisła Kraków
Moskva	vs.	København
Žilina	vs.	Levski
Dortmund	vs.	Udinese
Braga	vs.	Artmedia
Feyenoord	vs.	Kalmar
Hamburg	vs.	AFC Unirea Urziceni
H. Tel-Aviv	vs.	St-Étienne
Litex	vs.	Aston Villa
Austria Wien	vs.	Lech Poznań
Setúbal	vs.	Heerenveen
Brann	vs.	Deportivo
Slavia	vs.	Vaslui
AC Milan	vs.	Zürich
FC Timişoara	vs.	Partizan
Hertha	vs.	St Patrick’s
Baník	vs.	Spartak Moskva
Beşiktaş	vs.	Metalist
Portsmouth	vs.	Guimarães
Kayserispor	vs.	PSG
Sevilla	vs.	Salzburg
Wolfsburg	vs.	Rapid Bucureşti
Sampdoria	vs.	Kaunas
Marítimo	vs.	Valencia
Dinamo Zagreb	vs.	Sparta
Omonia	vs.	Man. City
Young Boys	vs.	Club Brugge
Nancy	vs.	Motherwell
Everton	vs.	Standard
Napoli	vs.	Benfica
Bellinzona	vs.	Galatasaray AŞ
NEC	vs.	Dinamo Bucureşti
Racing	vs.	Honka

Tags: AC Milan, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, FC Zürich, Kaunas, Napoli, Sampdoria, Udinese, UEFA Cup

Posted in Milan, Napoli, Sampdoria, UEFA Cup, Udinese |

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