Reeling Spurs face tough opener

A tough UEFA Cup assignment at in-form Serie A outfit Udinese today offers no let up for crisis-club Tottenham Hotspur and their beleaguered coach Juande Ramos.

Twice winners Spurs open their Group D campaign at the Stadio Friuli reeling from their dreadful start to the season.

Spurs have taken two points from their first eight Premier League games and are bottom of the table.

Ramos said after a 2-1 defeat at Stoke City on Sunday that the London side were in a "terrible situation" while the finger of blame has been pointed at the club's board by fans, still angry at the sale of Bulgaria striker Dimitar Berbatov and Ireland captain Robbie Keane.

Udinese, by contrast, have made a strong start in Serie A and are tied for second place with four wins from seven games.

Heerenveen's Norwegian boss Trond Sollied will be plotting to take Milan's scalp again when the Dutch side host the seven-times European champions in Group E at their sold-out Abe Lenstra stadium in the north of the Netherlands.

Sollied was in charge of Belgium's Club Bruges when they surprisingly won 1-0 at the San Siro in the group stage of the 2003-04 Champions League.

Heerenveen's Croatian striker Danijel Pranjic already has seven league goals to his name this season and his side are no respecters of reputation having walloped Ajax Amsterdam 5-2 earlier this month.

Other attractive opening ties in the group stage include the clash of two former European champions at Villa Park in Birmingham where Aston Villa host Ajax in Group F.

Both sides are managed by men who were European champions as players. Villa's Martin O'Neill was part of Nottingham Forest's winning team in 1980 while Ajax's Marco van Basten twice won the European Cup with Milan in 1989 and 1990.

An electric atmosphere is in prospect at the Ali Sami Yen stadium in Istanbul where Turkish champions Galatasaray host Greek champions Olympiakos in Group B.

Both sides failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League but negotiated first round passages to reach the UEFA Cup group stage.

The pair did meet in the group stage of the 2003-04 Champions League with Galatasaray winning 1-0 in Istanbul and Olympiakos easing to a 3-0 win in the return in Greece.

Dutch strugglers Feyenoord travel to France to face Nancy short on confidence and will not have the backing of their fans for their opening Group H tie.

The twice UEFA Cup winners, who languish in 15th place in the Dutch championship after four defeats from six games, did not sell tickets to their own fans for the game.

The last encounter between the clubs in November 2006 was marred by crowd trouble which resulted in Feyenoord's one-year ban from European competition.