Of the five German clubs involved, Hamburger SV and Schalke 04 are best-placed for the UEFA Cup group stage draw which takes place in Nyon, Switzerland on Tuesday.
Both teams are in pot 1, for the clubs with the highest UEFA coefficient, and are guaranteed one opponent from among those with the lowest coefficient.
Eight groups of five
VfB Stuttgart are in the relatively favourable pot 2, while Hertha BSC Berlin (pot 4) and VfL Wolfsburg (pot 5) can expect to be up against some stiff opposition, including the likes of AC Milan, Benfica and FC Seville.
40 teams in total will be split into five groups, consisting of one team from each of the five pots. Teams from the same country will be kept apart at the group stage.
The top three sides from each group after four games qualify for the knockout round of 32, where they will be joined by the eight third-placed clubs from the Champions League group stage.
The pots in overview:
Pot 1: AC Milan (UEFA coefficient: 119.934), FC Seville (102.837), FC Valencia (83.837), Benfica Lisbon (77.176), Schalke 04 (67.078), CSKA Moscow (59.437), Tottenham Hotspur (55.996), Hamburger SV (52.078)
Pot 2: VfB Stuttgart (52.078), Ajax Amsterdam (51.610), Olympiakos Piraeus (51.525), Deportivo La Coruna (46.837), FC Bruges (41.810), Spartak Moscow (40.437), Paris St. Germain (37.380), SC Heerenveen (35.610)
Pot 3: Rosenborg Trondheim (35.400), Udinese Calcio (34.934), Feyenoord Rotterdam (33.610), Sporting Braga (33.176), Slavia Prague (31.496), Manchester City (30.996), Galatasaray Istanbul (30.469), Sampdoria Genoa (28.934)
Pot 4: Hertha BSC Berlin (27.078), Partizan Belgrade (25.527), AS Nancy (25.380), FC Portsmouth (24.996), Aston Villa (24.996) Racing Santander (24.837), FC Copenhagen (23.748), Dinamo Zagreb (17.836)
Pot 5: AS St.Etienne (17.380), VfL Wolfsburg (16.078), Standard Liege (14.810), Twente Enschede (14.610), NEC Nijmegen (12.610), Metallist Kharkov (10.932), Lech Poznan (6.973), MSK Zilina (4.070)
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