2007–08 UEFA Cup


The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second tier club football tournament. The final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England on 14 May 2008 between Rangers of Scotland and Zenit Saint Petersburg of Russia. Zenit won the match 2-0, with goals from Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov, to claim their first UEFA Cup title. The first qualifying games were played on 19 July 2007 and the main tournament commenced on 20 September 2007. A total of 123 football clubs took part in the tournament.
Each European football nation is represented by a different number of its associate clubs, depending on the UEFA coefficients. Budućnost Podgorica was the first team from Montenegro to enter the competition.
The tournament's top scorers were Pavel Pogrebnyak of Zenit Saint Petersburg and Luca Toni of Bayern Munich, each with 10 goals.

Round and draw dates

The calendar from .
DateEvent
29 June 2007Draw for first qualifying round
19 July 2007First qualifying round, first leg
2 August 2007First qualifying round, second leg
3 August 2007Draw for second qualifying round
16 August 2007Second qualifying round, first leg
30 August 2007Second qualifying round, second leg
31 August 2007Draw for first round
20 September 2007First round, first leg
4 October 2007First round, second leg
9 October 2007Draw for group stage
25 October 2007Group stage, 1st matchday
8 November 2007Group stage, 2nd matchday
29 November 2007Group stage, 3rd matchday
5 December / 6 December 2007Group stage, 4th matchday
19 December / 20 December 2007Group stage, 5th matchday
21 December 2007Draw for Round of 32 and Round of 16
13 February / 14 February 2008Round of 32, first leg
21 February 2008Round of 32, second leg
6 March 2008Round of 16, first leg
12 March / 13 March 2008Round of 16, second leg
14 March 2008Draw for remaining rounds
3 April 2008Quarter-finals, first leg
10 April 2008Quarter-finals, second leg
24 April 2008Semi-finals, first leg
1 May 2008Semi-finals, second leg
14 May 2008Final in Manchester

Teams

;Notes

Qualifying stage

First qualifying round

The draw, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions, was held on Friday, 29 June 2007 at 13:30 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The matches were played on 19 July and 2 August 2007.
!colspan="5"|Southern-Mediterranean region
!colspan="5"|Central-East region
!colspan="5"|Northern region

Second qualifying round

The draw, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of professional football, was held on Friday, 3 August 2007 at 13:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The matches were played on 16 and 30 August 2007.
!colspan="5"|Southern-Mediterranean region
!colspan="5"|Central-East region
!colspan="5"|Northern region

First round

The draw, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Gérard Houllier, the winning coach in the 2000–01 tournament, was held on Friday, 31 August 2007 at 13:00 CET in Monaco. The matches were played on 20 September and 4 October 2007.
!colspan="5"|Group 1
!colspan="5"|Group 2
!colspan="5"|Group 3
!colspan="5"|Group 4
!colspan="5"|Group 5
!colspan="5"|Group 6
!colspan="5"|Group 7
!colspan="5"|Group 8

Group stage

The draw, which was conducted by UEFA's director of professional football Giorgio Marchetti and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions, was held on Tuesday, 9 October 2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland.
The top three teams of each group qualified for the next round. Based on paragraph 6.06 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams were equal on points on completion of all the group matches, the following criteria were applied to determine the rankings:
  1. superior goal difference from all group matches played;
  2. higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
  3. higher number of goals scored away in all group matches played;
  4. higher number of wins;
  5. higher number of away wins;
  6. higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

    Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Final phase

All of the rounds in the final phase are two-legged, except for the final. In the event of aggregate scores being equal after normal time in the second leg, the winning team will be that which scored more goals on their away leg: if the scores in the two matches were identical, extra time is played. The away goals rule also applies if scores are equal at the end of extra time. If there are no goals scored in extra time, the tie is decided on a penalty shoot out. The team first out of the hat in each tie plays the first leg of their tie at home, and the second leg away.

Bracket

Round of 32

The draw for the round of 32, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions, was held on Friday, 21 December 2007 at 13:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The eight group winners were drawn against the eight third-placed teams, while the eight second-placed teams were drawn against the eight teams who finished third in the Champions League groups. Teams from the same group or the same country cannot be drawn together.
The first legs were played on 13 and 14 February 2008. The second legs were played on 21 February 2008.

Round of 16

The draw for the Round of 16, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor, was also held on Friday, 21 December 2007 at 13:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The first legs were played on 6 March 2008. The second legs were played on 12 and 13 March 2008. Unlike the previous rounds, teams from the same group or country may be drawn together from the round of 16 onwards.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Denis Law, the ambassador for the final in Manchester, was held on Friday, 14 March 2008 at 14:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The first legs of the quarter-finals were played on 3 April and the second legs were played on 10 April 2008.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on 24 April and 1 May 2008.

Final

The final was contested by Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg and Scottish side Rangers F.C. on 14 May 2008 at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. Zenit won the match 2-0, with goals from Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov coming in the last 20 minutes of the game to give Zenit their first UEFA Cup title.

Top goalscorers

The top scorers in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup are the following:
RankNameTeamGoalsAppearances
1 Pavel Pogrebnyak Zenit Saint Petersburg1013
1 Luca Toni Bayern Munich1011
3 Stefan Kießling Bayer Leverkusen712
4 Adrian Mutu Fiorentina610
4 Henrik Larsson Helsingborg68
4 Razak Omotoyossi Helsingborg68
7 Sergio Agüero Atlético Madrid57
7 Dimitar Berbatov Tottenham Hotspur58
7 Fernando Cavenaghi Bordeaux57
7 Miroslav Klose Bayern Munich512
7 Roland Linz Braga58
7 Dimitrios Papadopoulos Panathinaikos57
7 Lukas Podolski Bayern Munich512
7 Jon Dahl Tomasson Villarreal58

Sources: