Everton await UEFA Cup fate

Aug 31 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON will today discover where their European adventure begins when the draw for the UEFA Cup first round is made.

The ceremony takes place in Monaco at noon, with the Goodison outfit among the seeded teams.

It means David Moyes’s side will avoid the likes of Villarreal, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Sampdoria with competition rules ensuring they also won’t face fellow Premier League teams Tottenham Hotspur, Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.

They also cannot play Dinamo Bucharest, who eliminated Everton in their last UEFA Cup campaign two years ago.

However, there are a number of tricky ties lying in wait for Everton, with FC Copenhagen, Dinamo Zagreb, Dutch team Groningen and Bundesliga side Nuremberg among the unseeded teams.

Everton could also conceivably face Toulouse, thrashed by Liverpool in the Champions League this week, while Aberdeen are also potential opponents.

The Goodison side will no doubt be keen to sidestep a lengthy journey, with teams from Bosnia, Belarus and Ukraine among the unseeded sides.

The first round is a two-legged tie which takes place on September 20 and October 4, with the 40 winners then splitting into eight groups of five teams.