Newcastle among top seeds

Newcastle and Rangers are among the top seeds for the draw for the inaugural group stage of the UEFA Cup.

That means they will avoid the likes of Lazio, Parma and Feyenoord in the draw for the five-team groups but the news is not so good for Britain’s other representatives.

Middlesbrough, in Europe for the first time this season, are in third group of seeds while Hearts are in the fourth of five groups so both teams could face a difficult draw.

Clubs from the same national associations cannot be drawn together but that still leaves the opportunity for Newcastle to be paired with Hearts and Rangers to find themselves in the same group as Middlesbrough.

Newcastle eased into the group stage, introduced to the UEFA Cup for the first time this team this season, courtesy of a 7-1 aggregate win over Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin while Rangers needed a penalty shoot-out to get past Maritimo.

Middlesbrough beat Banik Ostrava 3-1 on aggregate on a night marred by crowd trouble in the Czech Republic while Hearts ousted Sporting Braga 5-3 on aggregate.