LONDON: AC Milan add a touch of glamour to this season’s UEFA Cup but the seven-times European champions begin their campaign against FC Zurich under a cloud after a dismal start to the season.
Milan, who have never won the UEFA Cup, welcome the Swiss side to the San Siro needing a comprehensive victory in the first leg of their first round tie to ease the pressure on coach Carlo Ancelotti.
Milan, who finished a disappointing fifth in Serie A last season and missed out on the Champions League. Chief executive Adriano Galliani said after a meeting with Ancelloti that the Milan coach’s job was not under threat. “Carlo Ancelotti won’t be touched. Neither I nor the owner have ever thought of replacing him,” he said.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Juande Ramos is another coach also under pressure early in the season with Spurs rooted to the foot of the Premier League after four matches.
Tottenham, the first winners of the UEFA Cup in 1972, face Wislaw Krakow of Poland, who were eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers by Barcelona. Sevilla which had successive triumphs in 2006 and 2007, are back in the competition after competing in the Champions League last season. The Spaniards take on Austria’s Salzburg.
WARY AJAXAjax Amsterdam, who won the UEFA Cup in 1992 and have been
European champions four times, will be wary of slipping up in the early rounds again when they take on Serbia’s FK Borac in Belgrade. Marco van Basten makes his European debut as Ajax coach. Ajax’s fierce rivals Feyenoord have a tie against Sweden’s Kalmar. The final will be played at Fenerbahce’s Sukru Saracoglu stadium in Istanbul on May 20.
