Did you even know that there is a round of UEFA Cup fixtures on tonight, got to admit that I didn’t! I was just looking around wondering what to do tonight, beer and football being the obvious choices on a Wednesday. I knew there was a Premier League game on tonight (Man United – Fulham) but the UEFA Cup had totally passed my by, how can that be?

Is it really the case that the UEFA Cup has become the European equivalent of the Carling Cup? For me it has, a few decent teams, a lot of mediocre teams (the sort than finish mid table but still end up in a European competition) and then some really crap ones. I think what’s really damaged the competition has been the expansion of the Champions League. When the Champions League was only a Cup competition with only the top teams taking part it meant that the quality left for the UEFA Cup was much higher than we see now. Even the odd UEFA Cup match that I do watch is crap. It’s not that my team isn’t in it either. The FA Cup for example always holds my attention no matter who is playing, as a football fan I would never miss a live FA Cup game. True, I’ve never been a huge fan of European club football, for me it just doesn’t live up to the pace and excitement of the Premier League (or English football in general) but at least in the Champions League you are likely to see the odd moment of magic from one of the worlds best players.

The UEFA Cup is still the second highest honour in European club football though so there’s always the thought in the back of my mind that maybe I’ve got it all wrong. Perhaps it’s just that I need to watch more of it to enjoy it. So tonight I’ve going to enjoy a few beers and tune in to the UEFA Cup. I could be wrong, it has happened before!

So what do you think, are there any big fans of the UEFA Cup as a competition out there or does it all just depend on if your club is in it or not?

Just for anyone interested here are tonight’s fixtures:-

17:00 Din. Kiev - Valencia
17:15 Zenit - Stuttgart
17:30 Olympiakos - St Etienne
19:00 Aston Villa - CSKA Moscow
19:35 Bremen - AC Milan
19:45 Bordeaux - Galatasaray
19:45 Nijmegen - Hamburger
19:45 PSG - Wolfsburg
19:45 Sampdoria - Metalist Kharkiv
20:00 Aalborg - La Coruna
20:45 Braga - St. Liege

I think it’s going to be Villa and CSKA Moscow for me tonight.