2008-09 UEFA Cup
Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Istanbul hosted the final.
|
|
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 17 July 2008 – 20 May 2009 |
| Teams | 80 (competition proper) 157 (qualifying) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Shakhtar Donetsk (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |
 Werder Bremen
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 221 |
| Goals scored | 572 (2.59 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Vágner Love(11 goals) |
The 2008–09 UEFA Cup was the 38th season of the UEFA Cup football tournament. The final was played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, home ground of Fenerbahçe, in Istanbul on 20 May 2009. This season was the final one to use the UEFA Cup format; starting in 2009, the event was known as the UEFA Europa League.
Zenit Saint Petersburg were the defending champions but were eliminated by Udinese in the Round of 16.
A total of 157 teams from 53 UEFA associations participated in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup. Associations were allocated places according to their 2007 UEFA league coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2002–03 to 2006–7.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup:
plus
Since the winners of the 2007–08 UEFA Cup, Zenit Saint Petersburg, qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League through domestic performance, the title holder spot reserved for them in the playoff round was vacated. As a result, the following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for the vacant title holder spot in the group stage:
A UEFA Cup place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, or qualifies for the UEFA Cup by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:
The calendar shows the dates of the rounds and draw.
The draw for the first qualifying round took place on 1 July 2008. The first legs were played on 17 July 2008 and the second legs were played on 31 July 2008, with the exception of the Nordsjælland vs TVMK match, which was played on 29 July 2008.
...
Wikipedia