http://www.uefa.com/competitions/IntertotoCup/news/Kind=1/newsId=310078.html
Göteborg get UEFA season started
Friday, 17 June 2005
By Paul Saffer
With PFC CSKA Moskva's UEFA Cup celebrations still fresh in the memory, 42 clubs embark this weekend in the UEFA Intertoto Cup first round on what they hope will be a 326-day 2005/06 campaign culminating in a similar party in Eindhoven on 10 May next year.
UEFA Cup prize
Even for the teams in action on Saturday and Sunday, there are five two-legged ties to negotiate before they can claim the prize of a UEFA Cup first-round spot in mid-September. However, that reward has attracted some big names to the 2005 Intertoto Cup, with Olympique de Marseille, BV Borussia Dortmund, Valencia CF, S.S. Lazio and Newcastle United FC among those entering later on, and two-time UEFA Cup winners IFK Göteborg involved on Saturday - among 15 teams making their Intertoto debut this weekend.
Göteborg trip
Of course, unlike their first-leg hosts, Luxembourg's FC Victoria Rosport, Göteborg are not in the middle of their close season as Sweden operates a summer league. Indeed, Göteborg were in action against GIF Sundsvall on Thursday, winning 2-0 to move within three points of the top. They have also been displaying their prowess in the pan-Scandinavian Royal League, reaching the final on 29 May only to lose to FC København on penalties.
Trio injured
Coach Arne Erlandsen, without the injured Håkan Mild, Mikael Sandklef and Hjalmar Jonsson, said: "It's a good chance for the players to get some international experience, but at the same time we are in a very hectic period in the Allsvenskan, and these two games don't make it easier. But we have a good squad and it gives fringe players a chance to show their worth."
European bow
Last season's fourth-placed side in Luxembourg, Rosport are one of nine clubs making their European bows along with FC Ranger's, NK Ptuj, CFR Cluj, FK Karvan Evalkh, Pápa TFC, FC Lernagorts-Ararat, FC International Turku and Skála. The return in Sweden is on Saturday 25 June, with the winners facing Hungary's Pápa or FC WIT Georgia on the first two weekends of July.
Ranger's test
Another familiar name in first-round action are SK Sturm Graz of Austria, UEFA Champions League group stage entrants as recently as 2000/01. On Sunday they travel to Andorra to meet that nation's runners-up Ranger's. Germany's VfL Wolfsburg, 2003 Intertoto Cup finalists, await the winners of the tie.
Hamburg chance
Wolfsburg's Bundesliga rivals and 1982/83 European Champion Clubs' Cup winners Hamburger SV also enter in the second round, and will await the result of the tie between FK Smederevo and FK Pobeda of F.Y.R. Macedonia, with the first leg in Serbia and Montenegro on Sunday.
Competition format
In all, eleven sides will be joining the 21 first-round qualifiers in the second stage, with a further eight teams receiving byes to the third round of the five-phase competition, which as in previous years will produce three winners earning a UEFA Cup berth.
It's some very good teams in the Intertoto this year and some bigg guns and bigg old names !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
from Italy
1.S.S. Lazio (ITA)
from England
1.Newcastle United FC
from Spain
1.Athletic Club Bilbao
2.Valencia CF
3.RC Deportivo La Coruña
from France
1.AS Saint-Etienne
2.Olympique de Marseille
3.RC Lens
from Germany
1.BV Borussia Dortmund
2.VfL Wolfsburg
3.Hamburger SV
