4 teams out of the final 8 are Spanish. I love when this happens; it shows the supremacy of the Spanish league. Will see what happens next month.
I'd really enjoy a Roma vs. Valencia final. Two very, very, very good teams - lets hope they don't draw each other in the next round! Intermission
I also believe that there are still 16 teams in the UEFA Cup not 8 like you mentioned. Yeah if a Spanish team wins the UEFA Cup and the CL then GolTV will have no option but to show la liga games live instead of SDD while showing the calcio games live during the weekends! ;>) Pichi
Valencia, Barça and Mallorca will be seeded in the coming draw, along with: Liverpool, Inter, Roma, Girondins Bordeaux and PSV Eindhoven. So there's a few good teams that will be avoided for now. Then again, good teams in the not seeded group as well: Celtic, Newcastle, Olympique de Marsella, Brujas, Villarreal, Benfica, Auxerre and Gençlerbirligi. Teams from the same country can't face each other in this round.
Celtic-BARCELONA Gencierbirligi-VALENCIA VILLARREAL-Roma Newcastle-MALLORCA Auxerre-PSV Inter-Benfica Liverpool-O. Marsella Girondins-Brujas Tough draw for Villareal
Definitely rough for Villarreal, while Barcelona and Mallorca will not have it easy either. Valencia looks to have the best draw, but Gencierbirligi won't be a easy match, they convincingly beat Parma 4-0 (5th in Serie A right now) on aggregate and Turkey is never an easy place to play.
Here's the full draw: 1 Celtic - Barcelona 2 Gençlerbirligi - Valencia 3 Girondins Bordeaux - Club Brugge 4 Newcastle United - Real Mallorca 5 AJ Auxerre - PSV 6 Internazionale - Benfica 7 Liverpool - Olympique Marseille 8 Villarreal - AS Roma Quarters a Winner game 3 - Winner game 2 b Winner game 7 - Winner game 6 c Winner game 1 - Winner game 8 d Winner game 5 - Winner game 4 Semifinal .Winner game d - Winner game b .Winner game c - Winner game a Final .The non-losers
I have to agree that I like to see the Spanish teams do well. The only Spanish team I won't be rooting for is Villareal, but that's because I like Roma. Overall, I find the Spanish league the most interesting. Anyone can beat anyone on any day. Even Real Madrid is beatable by anyone. If Barcelona continues on their pace, I wouldn't be surprised if they catch Madrid. I truly hope Deportivo takes out Juventus in CL. Anyone who follows Italian calcio knows that Juve receives more questionable calls their way than anyone else (even Real Madrid).
Thanks for this information. I had not been to Spain until a couple weeks ago and then I saw Real Madrid beat Espanyol 4-2 at Montjuic in Barcelona. It was a great soccer experience. I enjoy La Liga a lot. I do have a question. Where does UEFA Cup fit in relative to Champions League? Looking at the teams in this competition, it would seem some of them are a cut below Champions League. Who decides who is in UEFA Cup and who is in Champions League? I am not trying to make any point, just trying to figure out how the system works, which is soccer is not always easy.
The UEFA Cup is for the teams that ended up just below the Champion's League spots in the league (in Spain that would be #5 and #6) for the winners of the national cup, and the teams that win the Intertoto Cup.