2007–08 UEFA Cup Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
2007–08 UEFA Cup
Tournament details
Dates	20 September 2007 – 14 May 2008
Teams	88
Final positions
Champions	Zenit St. Petersburg (1st title)
Runners-up	Rangers
Tournament statistics
Matches played	221
Goals scored	563 (2.55 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Pavel Pogrebnyak (10 goals) Luca Toni (10 goals)
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was a big football tournament in Europe. It was the 37th time this competition was held. The UEFA Cup was the second most important club football tournament in Europe, after the Champions League.

The final match was played in Manchester, England, on May 14, 2008. Two teams, Rangers from Scotland and Zenit St. Petersburg from Russia, played against each other. Zenit St. Petersburg won the game 2–0. Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov scored the goals for Zenit. This was Zenit's first time winning the UEFA Cup.

The tournament started with qualifying games on July 19, 2007. The main part of the competition began on September 20, 2007. A total of 123 football clubs from all over Europe took part. Each country had a different number of teams based on their football strength. Montenegro was a new country that entered its top teams for the first time.

The players who scored the most goals in the tournament were Pavel Pogrebnyak from Zenit St. Petersburg and Luca Toni from Bayern Munich. Both players scored 10 goals.

How Teams Qualified for the Tournament

Teams had to play in special matches to earn a spot in the main UEFA Cup tournament. These were called the qualifying rounds.

First Qualifying Round Matches

The first qualifying matches happened in July and August 2007. Teams from many different countries played against each other. The winners moved on to the next stage.

Second Qualifying Round Matches

The second qualifying round took place in August 2007. More teams joined in, and the winners from the first round continued to play. Only the strongest teams made it through to the main tournament.

First Round of the Main Tournament

After the qualifying rounds, the teams that made it through, along with other top clubs, played in the first round of the main tournament. These games happened in September and October 2007. Teams played two matches against each other, one at home and one away. The team with more goals overall moved to the next stage.

Playing in the Group Stage

After the first round, the remaining teams were put into groups. This part of the tournament is called the group stage.

How Group Stage Works

In the group stage, teams played against every other team in their group. They played one game at home and one game away. Teams earned points for winning or drawing matches.

A win gave 3 points.
A draw gave 1 point.
A loss gave 0 points.

The top three teams from each group moved on to the next part of the tournament, which was the knockout stage. If teams had the same number of points, special rules like goal difference (how many more goals they scored than they let in) were used to decide who went through.

Group A Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Everton	4	4	0	0	9	3	+6	12
Nuremberg	4	2	1	1	7	6	+1	7
Zenit St. Petersburg	4	1	2	1	6	6	0	5
AZ	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1	4
Larissa	4	0	0	4	4	10	−6	0

Group B Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Atlético Madrid	4	3	1	0	9	4	+5	10
Panathinaikos	4	3	0	1	7	2	+5	9
Aberdeen	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1	4
Copenhagen	4	1	0	3	1	7	−6	3
Lokomotiv Moscow	4	0	2	2	4	7	−3	2

Group C Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Villarreal	4	3	1	0	7	3	+4	10
Fiorentina	4	2	2	0	10	4	+6	8
AEK Athens	4	1	2	1	4	4	0	5
Mladá Boleslav	4	1	0	3	5	6	−1	3
Elfsborg	4	0	1	3	3	12	−9	1

Group D Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Hamburg	4	3	1	0	7	1	+6	10
Basel	4	2	2	0	3	1	+2	8
Brann	4	1	1	2	3	4	−1	4
Dinamo Zagreb	4	0	2	2	2	5	−3	2
Rennes	4	0	2	2	2	6	−4	2

Group E Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Bayer Leverkusen	4	3	0	1	8	2	+6	9
Spartak Moscow	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7
Zürich	4	2	0	2	4	7	−3	6
Sparta Prague	4	1	1	2	4	5	−1	4
Toulouse	4	1	0	3	4	7	−3	3

Group F Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Bayern Munich	4	2	2	0	12	5	+7	8
Braga	4	1	3	0	5	3	+2	6
Bolton Wanderers	4	1	3	0	5	4	+1	6
Aris Thessaloniki	4	1	2	1	5	8	−3	5
Red Star Belgrade	4	0	0	4	2	9	−7	0

Group G Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Getafe	4	3	0	1	7	5	+2	9
Tottenham Hotspur	4	2	1	1	7	5	+2	7
Anderlecht	4	1	2	1	5	4	+1	5
Aalborg BK	4	1	1	2	7	7	0	4
Hapoel Tel Aviv	4	1	0	3	3	8	−5	3

Group H Teams and Results

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Bordeaux	4	4	0	0	9	5	+4	12
Helsingborg	4	2	1	1	8	5	+3	7
Galatasaray	4	1	1	2	6	5	+1	4
Panionios	4	1	1	2	4	7	−3	4
Austria Wien	4	0	1	3	1	6	−5	1

The Final Knockout Rounds

After the group stage, the tournament became a knockout competition. This means that if a team lost a match, they were out of the tournament. Most of these rounds involved two games: one at each team's home stadium.

How Knockout Games Work

If the total score after two games was a draw, the team that scored more goals away from home would win. If it was still a draw, extra time was played. If there were still no goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shootout.

Round of 32 Matches

The draw for this round happened in December 2007. The group winners played against third-placed teams from other groups or teams that came from the Champions League. Teams from the same group or country could not play each other yet. These games were played in February 2008.

Round of 16 Matches

The draw for the Round of 16 also happened in December 2007. From this round onwards, teams from the same group or country could play against each other. These matches were played in March 2008.

Quarter-finals: The Last Eight Teams

The draw for the quarter-finals was held in March 2008. Only eight teams were left in the competition. These exciting matches took place in April 2008.

Semi-finals: The Final Four Teams

The semi-final matches were played in April and May 2008. Only four teams remained, battling for a spot in the grand final.

Bayern Munich (Germany) played against Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia). Zenit won with a total score of 5-1 over two games.
Rangers (Scotland) played against Fiorentina (Italy). After two games and extra time, the score was 0-0. Rangers won the penalty shootout 4-2 to reach the final.

The Grand Final Match

The final of the 2007–08 UEFA Cup was a big event. It was held on May 14, 2008, at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England.

Zenit St. Petersburg from Russia played against Rangers from Scotland. The game was tight for a long time. Then, in the 72nd minute, Igor Denisov scored for Zenit. In the last moments of the game, Konstantin Zyryanov scored another goal. Zenit won the match 2–0. This victory gave Zenit their first-ever UEFA Cup title.

14 May 2008	Zenit St. Petersburg	2 – 0	Rangers	City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester Attendance: 43,878 Referee: Peter Fröjdfeldt (Sweden)
	Denisov 72' Zyryanov 90+4'	(Report)

UEFA Cup 2007–08 Winner

FC Zenit St. Petersburg First Title

Top Goal Scorers

Here are the players who scored the most goals in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup:

Rank	Name	Team	Goals	Appearances
1	Pavel Pogrebnyak	Zenit St. Petersburg	10	13
1	Luca Toni	Bayern Munich	10	11
3	Stefan Kießling	Bayer Leverkusen	7	12
4	Henrik Larsson	Helsingborg	6	8
	Adrian Mutu	Fiorentina	6	10
	Razak Omotoyossi	Helsingborg	6	8
7	Sergio Agüero	Atlético Madrid	5	7
	Dimitar Berbatov	Tottenham Hotspur	5	8
	Fernando Cavenaghi	Bordeaux	5	7
	Miroslav Klose	Bayern Munich	5	12
	Roland Linz	Braga	5	8
	Dimitrios Papadopoulos	Panathinaikos	5	7
	Lukas Podolski	Bayern Munich	5	12
	Jon Dahl Tomasson	Villarreal	5	8

2007–08 UEFA Cup facts for kids

Contents