The 2005–06 UEFA Cup, the 35th edition of the UEFA Cup, was won by Sevilla, beating Middlesbrough in the final. It was the first victory for Sevilla in a European competition, and the first appearance by Middlesbrough in a European final. The final took place at Philips Stadion, in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The match was refereed by Herbert Fandel. Middlesbrough sealed their place in the final on the back of two dramatic comebacks. In the quarter-finals they beat FC Basel of Switzerland 4–3 on aggregate (after losing the first leg 2–0 and being 1–0 down in the second leg, they scored 4 goals), this put them into the semi–final to face Steaua București. The first leg finished 1–0 to Steaua, and the second leg (at the Riverside Stadium again) finished 4–2 (after being 2–0 down). Sevilla went on to defend the trophy the following year. CSKA Moscow were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.

Association team allocation

113 teams qualified directly for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup from 52 UEFA associations. An additional three teams qualified via the UEFA Fair Play league, while 27 further teams qualified at various stages from the UEFA Intertoto Cup and the UEFA Champions League. Below is the final qualification scheme for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup: plus

Association ranking

Distribution

Each association enters a certain number of teams to the UEFA Cup based on its league coefficient. Through domestic competitions (national championships and cups and league cups in certain countries) an association may qualify up to four teams. The following amendments were made to the 2005–06 qualification scheme:

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

Qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

First round

Group stage

Based on paragraph 4.06 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, tiebreakers, if necessary, are applied in the following order:

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout stage

Bracket

Round of 32

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top goalscorers