UEFA Cup hopefuls set to learn their fate

The draw for the UEFA Cup Round of 32 will take place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland from 13.00CET and will be followed by the draw for the Round of 16 at 13.30CET after the group stage was concluded on Thursday.

Top three through
The top three teams from each of the eight UEFA Cup groups all qualify along with the eight sides coming over from the UEFA Champions League – FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Werder Bremen, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympique de Marseille, Aalborg BK, ACF Fiorentina, FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Zenit St. Petersburg – who finished third in their respective sections in that competition.

Draw conditions
The Round of 32 draw will be made under the following conditions:
• Clubs from the same association must not be drawn against each other.
• The group-winners of a given group must be drawn against one of the third-ranked teams from another group.
• The runners-up of a given group must be drawn against one of the eight clubs joining the competition from the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.
• The group-winners and group runners-up shall play the return-leg match at home.

Round of 16
The draw for the Round of 16, which will be played on 12 March and 18/19 March, will follow once the draw for the Round of 32 has been completed. There will be no seeded teams. The 16 green balls containing slips of paper for "Winners of match 1" to "Winners of match 16" will be placed in the large central bowl and shuffled. The first team drawn will play its first match at home against the second team drawn and the same procedure will then be repeated for the other matches.