The new season started with the best omens. AEL as the Cup Winner, represented Greece in the UEFA Cup and the draw brought its technical leader, Giorgos Donis, faced with the club in which he started his international football career, English Blackburn Rovers. AEL entered the first qualifying round as the clear underdog, but on the afternoon of 20 September 2007 at the Panthessaliko Stadium—after Alcazar did not comply to the UEFA specifications—radically subverted the data: won 2–0 in the first match and lost 2–1 in the second game of Ewood Park and took a proud qualification to the group stage. In the "32" AEL faced powerful teams like Everton with a long tradition in the Premier League, rising Dutch AZ Alkmaar, German Nürnberg and the subsequent 2008 UEFA Cup winners mighty Russian Zenit Saint Petersburg. The team failed to pick a point in the four games, but won the respect that was confirmed by great European coaches, which AEL found opposite in this journey as Louis van Gaal and Dick Advocaat. Liberated from the burden of European obligations and with the assistance of world class players like Maciej Żurawski and Tümer Metin—AEL made an excellent championship course in the second round of the Super League and lost by one goal tie with Panionios the 5th position that led to the playoffs. A bittersweet epilogue to one of the most successful season in the team's history. Confirming the ever upward steps at all levels AEL recorded in 2008–09 one of the most successful years in its modern history. Stayed for 13 consecutive undefeated matches, finished fifth in the Super League and ensured its entry into the play-offs and a European output (in the UEFA Europa League) for the third time in the last four years and for just the third time in its history through the championship. It is a year in which AEL—among other things—broke two traditions winning in Kaftanzoglio Iraklis for the first time since 1982 and Olympiacos in Karaiskakis Stadium after 26 years.