Uefa Cup draw likely to favour Spurs

The Premier League strugglers Tottenham Hotspur have the consolation of a top seeding for this morning's draw for the Uefa Cup group stages.

It means Spurs, who are bottom of the league, will avoid some of the other favourites for the event such as the Serie A giants Milan, Valencia and Seville of La Liga. The Bundesliga leaders Hamburg, coached by Juande Ramos's predecessor as Spurs manager, Martin Jol, are also in the top group.

The Portuguese giants Benfica and the German side Schalke – Uefa Cup winners in 1997 – complete the top group. Manchester City are in the third tier, while both Portsmouth and Aston Villa are in the fourth pot. Three English sides will each face a top seed, but not Spurs, as teams from the same association cannot meet in the first group stage.

There will be eight groups of five teams, with each team playing two home games and two away games. The top three teams from each group progress to the knockout stage, where they are joined by the eight teams finishing third in the Champions League group phase to make up the last 32.

Matches will be played on 23 October, 6 November, 27 November, 3 and 4 December, and 17 and 18 December The final will be played at Istanbul's Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on 20 May.

Uefa Cup draw: Details

*POT ONE: Milan, Seville, Valencia, Benfica, Schalke 04, CSKA Moscow, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, Hamburg.

*POT TWO: VfB Stuttgart, Ajax, Olympiakos, Deportivo La Coruña, Club Brugge, Spartak Moscow, Paris St-Germain, Heerenveen.

*POT THREE: Rosenborg, Udinese, Feyenoord, SC Braga, Slavia Prague, MANCHESTER CITY, Galatasaray, Sampdoria.

*POT FOUR: Hertha Berlin, Partizan Belgrade, Nancy, PORTSMOUTH, ASTON VILLA, Racing Santander, FC Copenhagen, Dynamo Zagreb.

*POT FIVE: Saint-Etienne, VfL Wolfsburg, Standard Liège, FC Twente, NEC Nijmegen, Metalist Kharkiv, Lech Poznan, MSK Zilina.

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