Intertoto Cup Third Round Preview

Some of the more well-known clubs jump into the fray in this final round of competition including 2007 Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart, Aston Villa (former European Cup and 2001 Intertoto Cup Winners) and Norwegian club Rosenborg. Winners of this round enter UEFA Cup second qualifying round. The ultimate winner of the Intertoto Cup is the club from the surviving 11 who advances the furthest in the UEFA Cup.

My predictions of who will advance are highlighted. I’m picking what might be considered an upset by choosing Russian club Saturn over Stuttgart but the Russian league is in mid-season and Saturn crushed their opponents in the last round 8-1 on aggregate so they are in fine form going into this fixture. The same logic was applied to select Rosenborg advancing over NAC Breda.

Here are the complete fixtures, the first leg takes place over July 19th and 20th with the second leg being held on July 26th and 27th.

Bnei Sakhnin FC (Israel) v RC Deportivo La Coruña (Spain)
Panionios GSS (Greece) v SSC Napoli (Italy)
Sivasspor (Turkey) v SC Braga (Portugal)
Grasshopper-Club (Switzerland) v PFC Chernomorets Burgas (Bulgaria)
FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast (Russia) v VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
PFC Neftçi (Azerbijan) v SC Vaslui (Romania)
Stade Rennais FC (France) v SC Tavriya Simferopol (Ukraine)
SK Sturm Graz (Austria) v Budapest Honvéd FC (Hungary)
NAC Breda (Netherlands) v Rosenborg BK (Norway)
Odense BK (Denmark) v Aston Villa FC (England)
IF Elfsborg (Sweden) v FK R?ga (Latvia)