UEFA CUP PROVES BIG DRAW

Kaka - star man for Milan.

AC Milan, Valencia, Benfica and Schalke will join Britain's UEFA Cup participants in the draw for the first round of the competition in Monaco today.

With teams of such calibre in the pot, it is hardly the case that the UEFA Cup is a poor man's alternative to Europe's top club competition, the Champions League, this year.

Manchester City, who made the draw by the skin of their teeth yesterday, will join Portsmouth, Everton, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Motherwell among arguably the most attractive field for the first round of the UEFA Cup in years.

Ajax are also in there, as are 2006 winners CSKA Moscow and Sevilla, whose two-year grip on the trophy was broken by Zenit St Petersburg last season.

But Italian giants Milan will be the team to beat this year.

Their squad boasts 2004 and 2005 World Footballer of the Year Ronaldinho and the 2007 winner Kaka, not to mention Andriy Shevchenko, Italy's World Cup winners Gennaro Gattuso and Massimo Ambrosini and one of the hottest prospects in World football, Pato.