The 1999/2000 UEFA Cup was the 29th edition of the competition and was won by Galatasaray Istanbul after the Turks beat English club Arsenal 4-1 on penalties in the final at Copenhagen's Parken Stadium . The decisive penalty was converted by the then Romanian national team captain Gheorghe Popescu , who played for one season in England for Tottenham Hotspur . It was the first victory of a Turkish club in a European competition. The top scorer of the UEFA Cup was Darko Kovačević from Juventus Turin with 10 goals .
The competition was played in seven rounds in two legs. In the event of a tie, the number of goals scored away was decided first , then overtime, if no decision was reached after 15 minutes twice, a penalty shoot-out followed until the winner was determined. With the abolition of the European Cup Winners' Cup at the end of the 1998/99 season, the national cup winners were given a starting place in the UEFA Cup for the first time. As in the previous year, three clubs qualified for the first round via the UEFA Intertoto Cup . In the third round, the eight clubs eliminated from the first group phase of the Champions League as third-placed clubs joined the field, with the two finalists two of these teams later made it to the final.