This leg of our European tour starts in France where Bordeaux revived their Ligue 1 title hopes when Pierre Ducasse’s stunning 25-metre strike in stoppage time earned them a 2-1 win at Olympique Marseille on the weekend. Second-placed Bordeaux, on 71 points with two games left, are two points behind leaders and six-times champions Olympique Lyon, who drew 0-0 at Nice on Saturday. Marseille now sit fourth, two points behind Nancy, who hold the qualifying spot for the Champions League third preliminary round following their 3-0 thrashing of strugglers Racing Strasbourg on Saturday. St Etienne stay fifth, four points adrift of fourth-placed Marseille with Lille a further point behind.

On to Germany, where there were some mid-week games and of importance was Werder Bremen winning 1-0 at Hamburger SV despite finishing with nine men. The win clinches a top-three finish for Werder, and at least a place in the Champions League qualifiers, for themselves and Schalke 04. Hamburg and VfB Stuttgart are in fourth and fifth on 51 points, meaning the best they can now hope for is qualification for the UEFA Cup. Bayer Leverkusen, who were beaten 2-1 at home by Hertha Berlin on Wednesday, remain in sixth place on 48 points.

Next we stop off in Romania and say congratulations to CFR Cluj, from the city of Cluj-Napoca, who were crowned Romanian champions for the first time on Wednesday after a 1-0 win over Universitatea Cluj. CFR finished on 76 points, one point ahead of Steaua Bucharest who ended their campaign with a 5-0 rout of Gloria Buzau. CFR Cluj becomes the first team outside of Bucharest to win Liga I in 17 years. A penalty 15 minutes into the second half from Manuel Riccardo Cadu, after Brazilian Correia Edvan had fouled Argentine substitute striker Diego Ruiz, handed CFR victory. Unfortunately it was not all happy times as riot police had to fire tear gas to disperse Universitatea fans who attempted to attack CFR supporters. A special congrats to Canadian goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld after leaving Norwegian club Rosenborg BK.

In Bulgaria, CSKA Sofia claimed their 31st Bulgarian league title finishing well ahead of Levski and Lokomotiv Sofia, both of whom will take part in the Champions League 2nd Qualifying Round. CSKA Sofia are entered into the 3rd Qualifying Round. CSKA had a truly dominant season allowing only 9 goals in 28 matches while scoring 50 times.

In Serbia, Partizan Belgrade recently won their 10th national cup with a 3-0 rout of second division neighbours Zemun thanks to a hat-trick by Senegalese striker Lamine Diarra. Zemun could become the first third-division Serbian side to play in Europe as they are four points adrift of safety with as many matches remaining in the second tier but they will qualify for the UEFA Cup if league leaders Partizan complete the double. They are currently 3 points up on last year’s champions FK Crvena Zvezda. The winner of the league is entered into the Champions League Second Qualifying Round, while the runner-up is in the UEFA Cup Second Qualifying Round.

The champions of Croatian football are once again Dinamo Zagreb, who won the league title last month with six games to spare. They will enter the competition at the very first qualifying round of the Champions League while runners-up Hajduk Split will be entered into UEFA Cup qualifying.

In the Czech Republic, Sparta Prague are closing in on their 35th league title but dropped valuable points at the weekend after a 2-0 loss to FC Brno. That allowed their bitter city foes Slavia Prague to come within a point after a win over Olomouc. With two games left Slavia’s title challenge is back on after leading the table through much of the early season then faltering in form. In recent weeks Sparta and Slavia have taken turns faltering which has made the run-in quite exciting and unpredictable. Whoever wins the league will get a place in the Third Qualifying Round while the runner-up starts in the Second Qualifying Round.

Next door we check in on the Slovakian Corgon Liga where FC Artmedia Petržalka (FC Artmedia Bratislava) can now claim their first ever league and cup double after taking home the Slovakian Cup (Slovenský Pohár) by defeating FC Spartak Trnava 1-0 in Zilina. Artmedia are sitting six points ahead of second-place side MSK Zilina in the league.

In Turkey, Galatasaray held off the challenge of rivals, and this year’s surprise package in the Champions League, Fenerbahçe. Shabani Nonda led the way for Galatasaray with 14 goals after his transfer from A.S. Roma. Nonda also had a loan spell at Blackburn Rovers before moving permanently away from Italy. The real strength of the team was at the back as they only allowed 23 goals in 33 games in a league that can be quite high-scoring. The backline was bolstered by the emergence of Emre Güngör who pushed former Liverpool defender Rigobert Song to the substitutes bench in the second half of the season. The 23-year-old was rumoured to be sought after by Fenerbahce but he ended up signing with Galatasaray and they will hope to keep hold of him for a few seasons.

Finally we stop in Greece, where the Super League was won by Olympiacos finishing ahead of AEK Athens by a mere two points. Caretaker manager José Segura has done an admirable job guiding the team to the title after Takis Lemonis was fired for sub-par league performances despite a strong run in the Champions League. A special attaboy to Canadian striker Tomasz Radzinski who finished fourth in the Greek league scoring with 14 goals from 21 appearances for AC Skoda Xanthi.

As I mentioned last week, we’re going to take a look at the UEFA Cup, this companion competition to the Champions League. The UEFA Cup evolved from the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was founded in 1955, two weeks after the founding of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

The original tournament lasted three years, with matches timed to coincide with trade fairs and involved teams from Barcelona, Basle, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan and Zagreb. Barcelona, using players purely from FC Barcelona, beat a London representative side 8-2 on aggregate in the final.

In 1972 the tournament was renamed the UEFA Cup to reflect that the competition was now run by UEFA and no longer associated with the trade fairs. Tottenham Hotspur were the initial winners of the renamed competition.

The current UEFA Cup tournament is open to teams finishing in leading positions behind the champions in their domestic top flights, the winners of national cup competitions, the winners of the League Cup in certain countries, the eleven winners of the final matches in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, and three clubs from UEFA’s Fair Play League.

The tournament starts with three knockout qualifying rounds held in July and August. Participants from associations ranked 18 and lower enter the first qualifying round, and participants from associations ranked 9-18 join them in the second qualifying round. In addition, three places in the first qualifying round are reserved for the Fair Play winners, and eleven places in the second qualifying round are reserved for the UEFA Intertoto Cup winners.

The tournament used to be a straight knockout competition but the format was changed in 2004/05, however, when for the first time a group stage was introduced. Winners of the qualifying rounds join teams from the associations ranked 1-13 in the first knockout round. In addition, losers in the third qualifying round of the Champions League also enter this round, and another place is reserved for the UEFA Cup title-holders. There are 80 teams total in this round.

After the first knockout round, the 40 survivors enter a group phase, with the clubs being drawn into eight groups of five each. Unlike the Champions League group phase, the UEFA Cup group phase is played in a single round-robin format, with each club playing two home and two away games. The top three teams in each group advance, where they are joined by the eight third-place teams in the Champions League group phase. The winners, runners-up and third-placed teams from each section advance to the last 32 where they are joined by the eight third-placed clubs from the UEFA Champions League group stage. Here, the traditional two-match knockout format resumes, until the final.

After the group stage there is a winter break. From this point, knockout play resumes, with two-legged ties leading to the one-off final, which is held at a neutral ground meeting UEFA’s criteria for a four star stadium. This season The City of Manchester Stadium, which seats 47,000 fans, will stage the 2007/08 UEFA Cup final on May 14th 2008.

Here are the matchups for the first knockout round which will be played over two legs on September 20th and October 4th 2007. I think there are some dynamite match-ups that were tough to pick a winner for, especially the Lens – Copenhagen fixture. In the end, I think Copenhagen’s European experience will come through. In what would be an upset I think that Crvena Zvezda could get knocked out by Polish side Groclin Dyskobolia. The Serbs have been in turmoil so far this season and went so far as to fire coach Boško Djurovski and replace him with Milorad Kosanovic. The goals have been in short supply for the Serbian side but they are hoping that recently signed striker Nenad Jestrovic, who scored 55 goals in 79 appearances for Anderlecht during a four-year spell with the Belgian side, will bolster a forward line that has been poor in the finishing department.

Ajax have been handed a tricky tie against Dinamo Zagreb but I expect them to come through. The FC Twente – Getafe tie also looks promising but I think the Spanish side is just a bit stronger at the moment. All of the English clubs involved (Tottenham, Everton, Bolton, Blackburn) have received favourable ties and should advance to the group stage.

(My picks to advance are highlighted)
FC Midtjylland (Denmark) v Lokomotiv Moscow (Russia)
FC Groningen (Netherlands) v Fiorentina (Italy)
Rabotnicki Kometal (Macedonia) v Bolton (England)
AEK Athens (Greece) v SV Red Bull (Austria)
Nurnberg (Germany) v Rapid Bucaresti (Romania)
Everton (England) v FC Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Zenit St Petersburg (Russia) v Standard Liege (Belgium)
Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) v Uniao Leiria (Portugal)
Villarreal (Spain) v BATE (Belarus)
FC Sion (Switzerland) v Galatasaray (Turkey)
Atletico Madrid (Spain) v Kayseri Erciye (Turkey)
Bordeaux (France) v Tampere United (Finland)
Panathinaikos (Greece) v Artmedia Bratisl (Slovakia)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) v Odense BK (Denmark)
FC Zurich (Switzerland) v Empoli (Italy)
Sochaux (France) v Panionios (Greece)
Rapid Vienna (Austria) v Anderlecht (Belgium)
Pacos Ferreira (Portugal) v AZ (Netherlands)
Sampdoria (Italy) v AaB Alborg (Denmark)
Spartak Moscow (Russia) v BK Hacken (Sweden)
Hammarby (Sweden) v Braga (Portugal)
Larissa (Greece) v Blackburn (England)
Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic) v Palermo (Italy)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) v Ajax (Netherlands)
Rennes (France) v Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria)
SK Brann (Norway) v Club Brugge (Belgium)
Bayern Munich (Germany) v Belenenses (Portugal)
Aberdeen (Scotland) v Dnipro (Ukraine)
Heerenveen (Netherlands) v Helsingborgs IF (Sweden)
Toulouse (France) v CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria)
Hamburg (Germany) v Litex Lovech (Bulgaria)
FK Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) v Basle (Switzerland)
FK Austria Magna (Austria) v Valerenga (Norway)
AIK Solna (Sweden) v Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel)
Aris Salonika (Greece) v Real Zaragoza (Spain)
Dinamo Bucuresti (Romania) v IF Elfsborg (Sweden)
Tottenham Hotspur (England) v Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)
Lens (France) v FC Copenhagen (Denmark)
Getafe (Spain) v FC Twente (Netherlands)
Groclin Dyskobolia (Poland) v Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)