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The group stage concluded on Wednesday Dec 10th night. The eight teams who finished in third place in their respective groups have advanced to the knockout stage, which begins in February of 2009 with 32 participants. Joining FC Zenit St. Petersburg as qualifiers are FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Werder Bremen, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympique de Marseille, Aalborg BK, ACF Fiorentina, and FC Dynamo Kyiv. The top two teams in each group are still in contention for Champions League berths, and therefore not yet assured of spots in the UEFA Cup.

The Champions League takes precedence among the two events, and therefore clubs that qualify for that more prestigious tournament do not participate in the UEFA Cup. Fiorentina, which reached the UEFA Cup semifinals last season, defeated FC Steaua Bucuresti on Wednesday to book its place in the knockout round. Werder Bremen, meanwhile, scored a 2-1 home win over Inter Milan to secure third place in its group and qualify for the UEFA Cup. It’s a consolation prize for Werder Bremen, which missed out on qualifying for Champions League action. We’re disappointed in the Champions League this year but, with a bit of luck, in the end we made the best of a bad situation, said Werder Bremen’s Torsten Frings in a statement on the club’s official website. In spite of everything, I am happy that we will continue to play internationally next year. FC Zenit St. Petersburg, which overcame Rangers FC in Manchester to hoist the most recent UEFA Cup trophy, has a chance to equal the accomplishment of Sevilla FC by winning back-to-back UEFA Cup championships. Sevilla FC captured repeat titles in 2006 and 2007 and could soon be competing in another knockout stage yet again.

With the knockout stage still two months away, it has already been a long and grueling road to the UEFA Cup for the competitors. Prior to the group stage, UEFA Cup hopefuls endured two qualifying rounds, the first of which took place in July and the second of which was held in August. Advancing teams progressed to first-round play held in September and October. The all-important group play, which concludes next week, consists of eight pods, all of which contain five teams. Next season, however, the format will be changed so that there are 12 groups, each comprised of four teams. After 16 teams advance out of February’s opening knockout stage, the second round will take place in mid-March.

The quarterfinals will be held in mid-April, and the semifinals will be featured in late April and early May. The upcoming UEFA Cup Final will take center stage on May 20, 2009 and will be hosted in Istanbul’s Sukru Saracolou Stadium. Turkey’s largest city also showcased another big European soccer event when the 2005 UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool FC and AC Milan was contested in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium. Istanbul will be the 12th city to host the UEFA Cup final since the tournament switched to a new format for the 1997-98 season.

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