BOF Posted July 28, 2008 Moderator Share Posted July 28, 2008 The draw for the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA Cup will be taking place on Friday at 12:30 BST in Nyon and Aston Villa will be in it. As a representative of the English Premier League, Villa will be guaranteed to be one of the seeds. They'll be 4th seeds behind (in order) Rosenborg of Norway, England's Manchester City & Hertha Berlin of Germany assuming Citeh get through their tie against the plumbers and postmen of Faroe Island town Streymur. The following article assumes that there will be no shocks in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Cup which has it's 2nd leg on Thursday. However, if there are any shocks involving the currently-assumed seeds, that will only make our job easier as it will mean teams of a lower co-efficient (UEFA's method of ranking teams) will be in the 'pot' that our opponents will be chosen from and the top end of the current unseeded teams will move into the seeded section and out of our way. Don't worry, it sounds more confusing than it is. First of all, the list of seeds will be the aforementioned 4 aswell as FC Copenhagen and Brondby both from Denmark, Viking Stavanger and Lillestrom of Norway, Cup Winners Queen of the South from Scotland, Gent of Belgium and Sweden's Elfsborg. Of those seeds, the teams who still have to come through a 2nd leg are as follows: Man Citeh 2-0 up against Streymur of the Faroe Islands FC Copenhagen 4-0 up against Cliftonville of NI. Brondby 1-0 up after home leg against B36 Tórshavn of the Faroe Islands and Viking Stavanger currently losing 1-0 after the away leg against Vétra Vilnius of Lithuania. Of the teams who we will be potentially paired against, we have the following. Stabæk of Norway, Nordsjælland & Midtjylland of Denmark, Djurgardens & Kalmar of Sweden, Honka & Haka of Finland, Olimps Riga & Metalurgs of Latvia, Suduva of Lithuania or the wonderfully named Hafnarfjordur of Iceland. If Vétra beat Viking then Norwegian side Stabæk would take Viking's place among the seeds and Vétra would join the non-seeds. Stabæk are entering the competition at the 2nd qualy round so they haven't yet played a game in Europe this season, although the Norwegian league is well under way and they currently sit 2nd in it and are 'flying' according to one of our Norwegian contributors. The teams who are not in danger of going out are : Nordsjælland 3-0 up from their first leg. Midtjylland are 6-1 up. Kalmar are 3-0 up. Honka are 3-0 up. The teams whose ties are in the balance are : Djurgardens are only 0-0 with an away day to come against Flora Tallinn of Estonia so that one is in the balance. Haka are 2-2 with the ROI's Cork City with a home tie to come. Riga are are currently losing 1-0 to ROI's St. Patricks Athletic with a home tie to come. Metalurgs are 1-1 with Glentoran of Norhern Ireland with a home tie to come. Suduva are 1-0 against Welsh side The New Saints although the away tie is next. Hafnarfjordur are 3-2 up after their home leg against Luxembourg side Grevenmacher so that one's in the balance too. On paper the Danes & Stabæk of Norway are the most difficult opponents we can face although they should be no more difficult than Odense were. The ties will be played on the 14th & 28th of August. This will almost definitely mean our opening Premier League fixture, ironically against Man Citeh, will be moved to Sunday the 17th, though please don't take my word on that. Brad Friedel will no doubt make his competitive debut in the first leg and I would hope we will have signed a left back to replace the crocked Wilfred Bouma (get well soon Freddy !!) by then too. All in all our next European opponents should actually be easier than Odense BK were. Every opponent will be a bit fitter than Odense were although so will we and you'd hope that our squad will be a bit bigger by the time the matches come around too, as the league campaign will be starting just after the first leg so any important signings will need to have been made by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted July 28, 2008 VT Supporter Share Posted July 28, 2008 It also looks possible that, depending on how the qualifiers go, that one of the Northern group clubs (which we're in) will get moved to the Central-Eastern group. I'd probably bet on one of the Baltic clubs, who alas are among the easier clubs we could face. That increases the chances of Stabæk being unseeded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieB Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Any idea whether it's home or way tie on Thursday 14th August?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 28, 2008 Author Moderator Share Posted July 28, 2008 Julie if I had to guess based on what UEFA usually do, it would be that the seeded team would be the 2nd team drawn out ergo we would likely be away in the first leg on the 14th. That's only an educated guess though. It also means Citeh would be away in their first leg so we'd both be equally knackered for the first Prem game on the following Sunday having both come back from foreign climes a mere 50/60 hrs beforehand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1977 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Thanks for that BOF. You have a life ouside Villa at all?? :winkold: Looks like barring a miricls that we will be moving into the next round safely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 28, 2008 Author Moderator Share Posted July 28, 2008 Thanks for that BOF. You have a life ouside Villa at all?? Just about Though in the run-up to the start of a season I tend to drop everything to immerse myself in Villa-related minutae :nod: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Hierro Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Yeah, I can comfirm that Stabæk most definitely are a MUCH better side than both Odense and Midtjylland and beat the league leaders FFK (incidentally Tarik Elyounoussi's former club) 5-1 only a couple of weeks ago. :winkold: 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Yeah, I can comfirm that Stabæk most definitely are a MUCH better side than both Odense and Midtjylland and beat the league leaders FFK (incidentally Tarik Elyounoussi's former club) 5-1 only a couple of weeks ago. :winkold: 8) Let's hope Man C get them, then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent_Bob Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Yeah, I can comfirm that Stabæk most definitely are a MUCH better side than both Odense and Midtjylland and beat the league leaders FFK (incidentally Tarik Elyounoussi's former club) 5-1 only a couple of weeks ago. :winkold: 8) Let's hope Man C get them, then Perhaps we should have a closer look at some of their players? YouTube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Hierro Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Yeah, I can comfirm that Stabæk most definitely are a MUCH better side than both Odense and Midtjylland and beat the league leaders FFK (incidentally Tarik Elyounoussi's former club) 5-1 only a couple of weeks ago. :winkold: 8) Let's hope Man C get them, then Perhaps we should have a closer look at some of their players? YouTube Alanzinho, yes, Stabæk's very own Barry Bannan (sizewise). If nothing else, he's living proof that short players can make it to a certain degree and that Bannan always will have the opportunity of making it big (see what I did there?) in Norway if his PL career never kicks off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condimentalist Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Ta very much BOF. These posts are invaluable to VT and I wouldn't have a hope in hell of understanding what was going on without them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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