Magpies get tough Euro draw
Glenn Roeder's team face a tough European campaign
Also In The News
|
Andrew Johnson is forced to withdraw from the England squad for after sustaining a hamstring injury during the last minute of Everton's draw with Manchester City on Saturday. |  |
Tuesday, 03, Oct 2006 04:12
Newcastle United have been handed a tough task if they are to progress to the knockout stages of the Uefa Cup.
In today's draw for the competition's group stages, the Magpies were joined by Celta Vigo of Spain, West Ham's Italian conquerors Palermo, Turkish side Fenerbahce and Germany's Eintracht Frankfurt.
The tough group comes despite Glenn Roeder's team being seeded for the draw in Nyon, Switzerland, this morning.
Tottenham, who were in the bottom group of seeds, would always have been expecting a difficult group and boss Martin Jol may well feel his side have come off lightly.
The north Londoners, who were only denied a place in the Champions League on the final day of last season, will face Bayer Leverkusen of Germany, Club Brugge of Belgium, Turkey's Besiktas and Dinamo Bucharest of Romania in the group stage.
Mark Hughes' Blackburn Rovers have been drawn against Dutch side Feyenoord, FC Basle of Switzerland, Poles Wisla Krakow and France's AS Nancy-Lorraine.
And Rangers will have to overcome the challenge of Auxerre, Serie A outfit Livorno, Serbians Partizan Belgrade and Maccabi Haifa of Israel if they are to hanker hopes of making it to the competition final at Ibrox on May 16th next year.
The Uefa Cup group stage sees each team play two home ties and two away matches from October to mid-December.
Group winners will be joined by runners-up and third placed sides in the last 32 knockout stage, when the third placed sides from the Champions League groups will also enter.
Group A
Auxerre
Rangers
P Belgrade
Livorno
Maccabi Haifa
Group B
Bayer Leverkusen
Club Brugge
Besiktas
Dinamo Bucharest
TottenhamGroup C
Sevilla
AZ Alkmaar
Slovan Liberec
Grasshopper
Braga
Group D
Parma
Lens
Heerenveen
Osasuna
Odense
Group E
Feyenoord
Basle
Wisla Krakow
Blackburn Rovers
Nancy
Group F
Ajax
Sparta Prague
Espanyol
Austria Wien
Zulte Waregem
Group G
Panathinaikos
Paris St Germain
Rapid Bucharest
Hapoel Tel Aviv
Mlada Boleslav
Group HNewcastle United
Celta Vigo
Palermo
Fenerbahce
Eintracht Frankfurt