An Antonio Di Natale penalty and a Simone Pepe goal condemned Tottenham Hotspur as they crashed to a soul destroying two-nil defeat against Udinese in the UEFA Cup.
Spurs had started brightly and had plenty of possession without ever really threatening the Udinese goal when Heurelho Gomes, the Spurs goalkeeper, stumbled as he controlled a backpass in the 23rd minute.
Fabio Quagliarella quickly dispossessed the Brazilian, who then pulled the Italian down to give away the penalty, which was comfortably converted by Di Natale.
Ten minutes later Gomes?s opposite number Samir Handanovic had a moment of discomfort himself, but Spurs failed to capitalise as Alan Hutton took an age to dig the ball out of his feet before passing to Jamie O?Hara, who shot over from outside the penalty area.
O?Hara then made matters worse for his side with a minute of madness which saw him pick up two yellow cards in quick succession, leaving Tottenham down to ten men, out of ideas and almost certainly out of the game.
From then on Udinese looked comfortable and tested Gomes on a number of occasions in the second half, firstly through a low drive from Quagliarella that the Brazilian managed to tip wide, and then from an attempted lob by DI Natale after a horror show of defending from Hutton.
Spurs boss Juande Ramos, previously a two-time UEFA Cup winner in charge of Sevilla, had introduced Luka Modric at half-time, replacing Benoit Assou-Ekotto as they chased the game.
Ramos then brought on Mexican midfielder Giovani Dos Santos for Jonathan Woodgate after O? Hara?s dismissal in an attempt to add some further attacking impetus to his weakened side who really failed to meaningfully test Udinese.
Darren Bent was the closest to scoring for the travelling Londoners in the first half but could only manage to tamely head Jermaine Jenas?s hanging cross in to Udinese goalkeeper Handanovic?s arms.
Bent did a lot better with an almost identical cross ? this time from Giovani - in the 85th minute of the second half, but his powerful header was tipped over by Handanovic as the Lilywhites nearly grabbed a point against the odds.
The resulting attack after some Spurs pressure then broke down as Giovani lost possession, and Udinese added their second as Quagliarella squared the ball for Pepe to score.
This was Tottenham?s seventh defeat in all competitions this season and the pressure is continuing to mount on Ramos and his squad as they fail to turn a corner and pick up a valuable three points in Italy.
Udinese must now be favourites to top Group D and progress to the latter stages of the tournament as they brushed Spurs aside with relative ease, getting their UEFA Cup campaign off to the worst possible start.
Udinese: Handanovic, Motta, Coda, Domizzi, Lukovic (Pasquale, 89), Inler, D’Agostino, Isla, Sanchez (Pepe, 79) Quagliarella (Floro Flores, 87), Di Natale.
Subs not used: Koprivec, Sala, Ferronetti, Obodo.
Tottenham: Gomes, Hutton, King, Woodgate (Giovani), Assou-Ekotto (Modric, 45) Lennon, Zokora, Jenas, O’Hara, Bale, Bent.
Subs not used: Cesar, Dawson, Gilberto, Gunter, Campbell.
Player Ratings: Udinese 2 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur
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