Portsmouth face AC Milan, Villa meet Ajax in UEFA Cup

Struggling Tottenham will face Spartak Moscow, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb and NEC Nijmegen in the next stage of their UEFA Cup campaign.

Spurs are bottom of the Premier League after a miserable start to the season but they reached the group phase of the UEFA Cup with victory against Wisla Krakow over two legs.

Juande Ramos' side at least received the fillip of a top seeding in today's draw, meaning they avoided some of the top-ranked sides such as AC Milan and Sevilla in their group.

They were placed in Group D and will play each other side once – with two home and two away fixtures – and the clash against Dinamo Zagreb will see summer signing Luka Modric come up against his old club.

Of the three other English sides in the draw, Portsmouth were handed one of the most eye-catching match-ups by coming up against 2007 Champions League winners AC Milan.

Pompey were placed alongside the Italian giants in Group E with Heerenveen, Braga and Wolfsburg.

Manchester City will come up against former England manager Steve McClaren’s FC Twente in Group A.

McClaren’s side have already been beaten by Arsenal this season in a Champions League qualifier and will face another stiff test against Mark Hughes’ men.

Schalke, Paris St Germain and Racing Santander make up the group.

Aston Villa will face Martin Jol’s Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia Prague and MSK Zilina in Group F.

Draw in full:

Group A: Schalke, Paris St Germain, Manchester City, Racing Santander, FC Twente.

Group B: Benfica, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, Hertha Berlin, Metalist Kharkiv.

Group C: Sevilla, Stuttgart, Sampdoria, Partizan Belgrade, Standard Liege.

Group D: Tottenham, Spartak Moscow, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb, NEC Nijmegen.

Group E: AC Milan, Heerenveen, Braga, Portsmouth, Wolfsburg.

Group F: Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia Prague, Aston Villa, MSK Zilina.

Group G: Valencia, Club Bruges, Rosenborg, FC Copenhagen, St Etienne.

Group H: CSKA Moscow, Deportivo La Coruna, Feyenoord, Nancy, Lech Poznan.

Each team plays two matches at home and two away, with the top three teams from each group qualifying for the last 32.

Ties to be played on October 23, November 6, November 27, December 3/4 and December 17/18.