Portsmouth have been grouped with AC Milan, Aston Villa will face Ajax, Spurs will travel to Russia, but Manchester City look to have the toughest group of the English teams.

UEFA CUP DRAW 2008/9

GROUP A: Schalke 04, Paris SG, MANCHESTER CITY, Racing Santander, FC Twente

GROUP B: Benfica, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, Hertha Berlin, Metalist Kharkiv

GROUP C: Sevilla, VfB Stuttgart, Sampdoria, Partizan Belgrade, Standard Liege

GROUP D: TOTTENHAM, Spartak Moscow, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb, NEC Nijmegen

GROUP E: AC Milan, Heerenveen, SC Braga, PORTSMOUTH, VfL Wolfsburg

GROUP F: Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia Prague, ASTON VILLA, MSK Zilina

GROUP G: Valencia, Club Brugge, Rosenborg, FC Copenhagen, Saint-Etienne

GROUP H: CSKA Moscow, Deportivo La Coruna, Feyenoord, Nancy, Lech Poznan

There are now eight groups of five teams. Each team play two home games and two away games. The top three teams in each group will go through to the knockout stages, at which point they are joined by the eight teams finishing third in the Champions League groups, making up the final 32.

Matches are scheduled to be played on 23rd October, 6th November, 27th November, 3rd and 4th December, and 17th and 18th December.

The final will be played at Istanbul’s Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on 20th May 2009.