Today we were drawn in the UEFA Cup in a group with Bayer Leverkusen, Besiktas, Club Brugge and Dinamo Bucuresti. I think it is going to be very difficult to progress. That said, you can only beat teams put in front of you, and even though it is going to be hard, I’m sure we will make it tough for the opposition.
Spurs manager Martin Jol told the club’s site: “It is a difficult one because we were in the last pot so it was always going to be a hard group. Normally the top three teams would be big favourites, but there are no weaker teams in our group and we will not be viewed as such by the other clubs. It will be an exciting journey for us.
“Leverkusen is a club with a great history, Dimitar Berbatov played there and they reached the Champions League final in 2002. They will probably be favourites to win the group. Besiktas are not the strongest team in Turkey at the moment but what you are guaranteed over there is a passionate crowd.
“I think we have done okay, we have Club Brugge at home and if we can get a good result in that it would set us up for the difficult trip to Leverkusen.”
The fixtures for the matches are as follows;
Thursday 19 October – Besiktas (Turkey) (A)
Thursday 2 November – Club Brugge (Belgium) (H)
Thursday 23 November – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany) (A)
Thursday 14 December – Dinamo Bucuresti (Romania) (H)