The 2008–09 UEFA Cup was the 38th season of the
UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
tournament. The
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
was played at the
Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium
The Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium (), known for sponsorship reasons as Ülker Stadium Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Sports Complex (), or simply Ülker Stadium, is a football stadium located in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul
Istanbu ...
, home ground of
Fenerbahçe, in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
on 20 May 2009. It was the final season to use the UEFA Cup format; starting in 2009, the competition was known as the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
. Ukraine's
Shakhtar Donetsk
Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...
beat
Werder Bremen
Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...
2–1 after
extra time
Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...
to win their first European title.
Zenit Saint Petersburg were the defending champions but were eliminated by
Udinese
Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...
in the Round of 16.
Association team allocation
A total of 157 teams from 53
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
associations participated in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup. Associations were allocated places according to their 2007
UEFA league coefficient
In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments (country rankings only), ...
s, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2002–03 to 2006–07.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup:
*Associations 1–6 each have three teams qualify
*Associations 7 and 8 each have four teams qualify
*Associations 9–15 and 22–51 each have two teams qualify, except
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...
, which has one team qualify (as Liechtenstein only has a domestic cup and no domestic league)
*Associations 16–21 each have three teams qualify
*Associations 52 and 53 each have one team qualify
plus
*The top three associations of the 2007–08
UEFA Fair Play ranking
The UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking was used by UEFA from 1995 to the 2015–16 season to grant three berths for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Since that time it has granted a monetary prize to winning associations.
Qualific ...
each gain an additional berth
*11 winners of the
2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup
The 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the last UEFA Intertoto Cup football tournament, the 14th to be organised by UEFA and the third since the competition's format was given a major overhaul. Fifty teams were invited, with the eleven winners after the ...
*16 losers from the
UEFA Champions League third qualifying round
*8 third-placed teams from the
UEFA Champions League group stage
Association ranking
;Notes
*(FP): Additional fair play berth (Denmark, England, Germany)
*(UCL): Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
Distribution
Since the winners of the
2007–08 UEFA Cup
The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, UEFA's former second-tier club association football, football tournament. The 2008 UEFA Cup Final, final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, E ...
,
Zenit Saint Petersburg, qualified for the
2008–09 UEFA Champions League
The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009. ...
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:
*The domestic cup winners of associations 14 (Turkey) was promoted from the second qualifying round to the play-off round.
*The first UEFA Cup entrant of associations 19 and 20 (Israel and Serbia) were promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Redistribution rules
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:
* When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifiers within the national association) also qualify for the Champions League, their UEFA Cup place is vacated, and the remaining UEFA Cup qualifiers are moved up one place, with the final place (with the earliest starting round) taken by the domestic cup runners-up, provided they do not already qualify for the Champions League or the UEFA Cup. Otherwise, this place is taken by the highest-placed league finishers that have not yet qualified for the European competitions.
* When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the UEFA Cup through league position, their place through the league position is vacated, and the UEFA Cup qualifiers that finish lower in the league are moved up one place, with the final place taken by the highest-placed league finishers that have not yet qualified for the UEFA Cup.
* A place vacated by the League Cup winners is taken by the highest-placed league finishers that have not yet qualified for the UEFA Cup.
* A Fair Play place is taken by the highest-ranked team in the domestic Fair Play table that has not yet qualified for the Champions League or the UEFA Cup.
Teams
;Notes
Round and draw dates
The calendar shows the dates of the rounds and draw.
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
First round

The draw, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary
David Taylor, was held on 29 August 2008 at 13:00 CET in Monaco.
Group stage
The draw for the group stage of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup was held at UEFA Headquarters in
Nyon
Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...
, Switzerland, on 7 October 2008. The 40 teams in the draw were divided into five pots based on their UEFA coefficients. The eight teams with the highest UEFA coefficient were allocated to Pot 1, the next eight teams to Pot 2, and so on. One team from each pot was drawn for each group, with the restriction that no team could be drawn with one from the same country.
The top three teams (highlighted in green) of each group qualified for the next round. Based on paragraph 6.06 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
#superior goal difference from all group matches played;
#higher number of goals scored;
#higher number of goals scored away;
#higher number of wins;
#higher number of away wins;
#higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Knockout stage
In the
knockout phase
A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
, teams played against each other over
two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.
Bracket
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Top goalscorers
Source: Hammond, Mike, ed (2009). The European Football Yearbook 2009/10. London: Carlton Books. .
See also
*
2008–09 UEFA Champions League
The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009. ...
*
2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup
The 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the last UEFA Intertoto Cup football tournament, the 14th to be organised by UEFA and the third since the competition's format was given a major overhaul. Fifty teams were invited, with the eleven winners after the ...
*
2009 UEFA Super Cup
The 2009 UEFA Super Cup was the 34th UEFA Super Cup, an annual Association football, football match between the winners of the previous season's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup competitions. The match was contested by 2008– ...
References
External links
2008–09 All matches UEFA Cup – season at UEFA website* All scorers 2008–09 UEFA Cup according to (excluding preliminary round) according t
+ all scorer
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 UEFA Cup
UEFA Europa League seasons
2
2