UEFA Cup / Matthew Walton / 06 May 2009 / Leave a comment

More than 100 teams started out this competition and some as far back as July 2008 via the Intertoto Cup. Hot-favourites AC Milan, recent back-to-back winners Sevilla and moneybags Manchester City have all fallen by the wayside and then there were four, says Matthew Walton.

It all started back in the 1971/72 season. The inaugural UEFA Cup competition being won by Bill Nicholson's legendary Spurs side who lifted the trophy by defeating, of all the sides in Europe, a team from just up the M1, Wolverhampton Wanderers, 3-2 on aggregate.

Since then 36 further champions have been crowned as the season's 'second best club side in Europe' - second, that is, to the year's respective Champions League winner, or European Cup winner as it was previously.

However, this year one of Hamburg ([2.54]), Shakhtar Donetsk ([3.45]), Dynamo Kiev ([6.0]) or Werder Bremen ([6.2]) will be crowned as the last ever winners of the UEFA Cup on May 20th in Istanbul. Next season the competition, which itself was a re-modelled version of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup when it started some 30 something years ago, will undergo a make-over of it's own. Season 2009/10 will see the arrival of the Europa League.

So the message is clear, enjoy the UEFA Cup whilst you still can. Three more matches and it will go the way of other recently lost soccer competitions, the much-missed Cup Winners Cup and the slightly less longed-for Intertoto Cup, and be forever consigned to the pages of history. Another footballing dodo.

More than 100 clubs started out in this year's tournament. The first round of qualifying matches kicking off on July 17th last year, making this marathon 10 month event the longest running soccer saga of the calendar.

Those teams who made it through two early qualifying rounds, plus a first round proper contested by a stripped down field of 80 club sides from right across Europe, ultimately combined to make up the finalised field of 40 teams who competed in the tournament's obligatory 'group phase'.

This stage, with its somewhat convoluted system of home and away matches, saw the event's first major shocks. Previous winners Sevilla (2006, 2007), Feyenoord (1973, 2002) and Schalke (1997) all failing to qualify for the knock-out rounds along with other fancied sides such as Benfica, Spartak Moscow and Hertha Berlin.

The 24 sides who prevailed were then added to by 8 more teams who traditionally enter the competition at this late stage on account of their recent elimination from the Champions League. Something of a financial safety net for these bigger clubs, not deemed good enough to continue in the elite tournament, this procedure has always been met with a mixed reaction.

Mixed results as well. Since this practice began in the 1999/2000 season there have been three wins for the ex-Champions League sides (Galatasaray 2000, Feyenoord 2002, CSKA Moscow 2005) but the general trend has been one of failure as most sides easily transfer the losing habit from one competition to the next.

This year, as we may find out, could differ from this traditional pattern but as we encountered the Round 32 of this year's UEFA Cup we saw the exit of the first two Champions League refugees as Bordeaux and Fiorentina lost to Galatasaray and Ajax respectively. Other shock results in this round included the demise of tournament favourites AC Milan to Werder Bremen on away goals, Deportivo crashing 6-1 on aggregate to Aalborg and Shakhtar Donetsk defeating Spurs.

Into the Round 16 and the defending champions made their exit as Zenit St. Petersburg (also another side coming in from the Champions League) surprisingly fell to Udinese and, probably in less of a shock, Manchester City saw off another 'parachute' club as they knocked out Aalborg on penalties.

We saw the back of another of these teams, Marseille, in the QF's where we also witnessed the end of any English interest in the tournament (Manchester City losing to Hamburg) along with the hopes of Italy (Udinese falling to Werder Bremen) and France (Marseille losing to Shakhtar and PSG to Dynamo Kiev).

And then there were four. Two sides from Germany, two from the Ukraine. Of which, as it happens, three are cast-offs from the Champions League - Shakhtar, Kiev and Bremen - with the other side joining them to make up the quartet being Hamburg.

As luck would have it, the SF's came out of the hat as domestic affairs with Kiev and Shakhtar meeting last week in the Valeri Lobanovskiy Stadium in Kiev, where they drew 1-1, whilst Bremen entertained Hamburg in their Weserstadion and were beaten 1-0 by the away side.

In the German derby, advantage quite clearly to Martin Jol's side and although these two sides share some pretty close head-to-head form in recent seasons (during which Bremen have won twice at Hamburg in the Bundesliga during the last four years) and Bremen recently put Hamburg out of the German Cup, on penalties, the view is that Hamburg, with the draw running for them in the second leg, will make the final.

Clearly the Betfair market echoes this sentiment with Hamburg 'to qualify' trading at [1.42] and their outright price at [2.56]. This for a side who have traded as big as [100.0] during this year's competition and were steadily traded in excess of [26.0] through the early stages of the event. Did you get the value?

Bremen, of course, aren't out of it. Less popular in the market than Hamburg and [3.3] to make the Istanbul final, Thomas Schaaf's side know that an early goal in the second leg will completely change the complexion of this tie.

The other semi, an all-Ukranian affair sees Shakhtar [1.59] to qualify with Kiev trading at [2.64] and although Kiev currently lead the domestic Ukraine championship by some 12 point from their opponents here, the fact is that Fernandinho's second half strike in the nation's capital last week has given Shakhtar a slight edge.

That said, the fact that Shakhtar have scored just 39 domestic goals in 26 matches, whilst Kiev have bagged 62 suggests this tie isn't over by a long way. There is some lucky Betfair trader out there who has backed Dynamo at [140.0] and their money is by no means lost.

Both ties could still go either way and with both being domestic affairs that view is heightened further. As such, the outsiders have definite chances to repair the damage of disappointing first leg results where neither managed to win.

Given the domestic data we have readily at hand, plus the Betfair prices, one must say that Kiev look an attractive proposition. Value in either the 'outright winner' or the 'to quality' markets, either way it's easy to make a case for free-scoring Dynamo turning the tables in this tie.

Hamburg and against Bremen is harder to call. With the draw in their favour, Hamburg are quite clearly the obvious choice but given their likely opponents, should they make the final, the best way to back the Germans might well be in the 'outright winner' market. If they make the final they will surely be the favourites.

A fascinating conclusion is in prospect and it's fitting that this historic European cup competition is going out with a fiercely contested tournament where, going into the final stages, any result is still possible.

The competition may be ending but it's ending on a high!