Troubled Tottenham get tough Euro draw

Tottenham's hopes of salvaging their season with a run in Europe were dealt a blow today after they were handed a tough group in the UEFA Cup.

Despite being among the top seeds, Spurs were drawn alongside Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb, Spartak Moscow and NEC Nijmegen.

Udinese are joint leaders of Serie A with Lazio and Inter Milan, while Dinamo Zagreb top the Croatian League by five points. Spartak Moscow, managed by Michael Laudrup, were runners-up in the Russia Premier League last season while NEC Nijmegen, the group's lowest ranked team, are seventh in the Dutch League.

Tottenham have yet to win in the Premier League this season and are enduring their worst start to a domestic campaign since 1912.

They only scraped into the group stages of the UEFA Cup with a 3-2 aggregate win over Wisla Krakow and confidence will be rock bottom when the tournament resumes later this month.

Spurs will, however, hope to profit from some inside knowledge as two of their summer signings, Luka Modric and Roman Pavlyuchenko, joined from their UEFA Cup opponents.