Europea League round-up: Spurs facing early exit after shock home defeat

TOTTENHAM’S chances of making the second round of the Europa League are hanging by a thread after they were beaten by 10-man PAOK Salonika on a controversial night at White Hart Lane.

Sloppy marking from Sebastien Bassong allowed Dimitris Salpingidis and Stefanos Athanasiadis to give the Greeks a 2-0 lead within the opening 13 minutes but Spurs pulled one back with a Luka Modric penalty after Konstantinos Stafylidis was dismissed for handball on the line.

Tottenham thought they had equalised through Jermain Defoe in the second half, but referee Bas Nijhuis controversially disallowed the striker’s goal for a foul on Pablo Contreras.

Harry Redknapp’s men, who knocked Hearts out in the play-off round back in August, are now three points behind second-place Rubin Kazan going into the last game with a far inferior goal difference. They will require a heavy victory away to Shamrock Rovers to have any chance of progressing. The Irish side crashed to a 4-1 defeat away to Rubin.

Nelson Haedo Valdez gave the Russian side an early lead and, though Ken Oman quickly equalised, Rubin restored their lead before half-time through Bebars Natcho.

Valdez and strike partner Obafemi Martins added further goals in the second half to seal an ultimately comfortable win, their side’s third in the group to leave them on 10 points.

Elsewhere, Birmingham City paid the price for Nikola Zigic’s early saved penalty as a narrow defeat against Braga in Portugal means they now face an uphill battle in their bid to progress into the knockout stages.

The big Serbian saw his 11th-minute spot-kick saved by goalkeeper Quim and the hosts went on to claim victory thanks to a touch of fortune as Hugo Viana’s 51st-minute strike took a huge deflection off Curtis Davies.

The result sees Braga qualify for the final 32 from a tight Group H based on their head-to-head record and a 3-1 victory in Birmingham on match day one, while Club Brugge’s dramatic 4-3 victory over bottom club NK Maribor in Slovenia also sends them three points clear of Chris Hughton’s men.

Blues must now defeat Maribor in the final round of fixtures and hope Brugge and Braga do not play out a draw, which would see the Belgian side through. “I don’t think we deserved to lose,” Hughton said. “I thought it was going to take a bit of brilliance or a little bit of luck for them to score. They got the one little bit of fortune that counted.”

In what was easily the most incredible match of the night, Brugge fought back from 3-0 down with just 16 minutes left to claim a victory over Slovenian outfit Maribor.