After losing at home to Dutch side NEC Nijmegen on December, Spartak needed to beat Tottenham by two goals or, failing that, better NEC's result at home to Udinese to secure a play-off place.
The Russian side spent the days in the run-up before the match going through their moves at Chelsea's luxury training center, and the time looked to have paid off when Artem Dzjuba first capitalized on indecision in the Tottenham defense to give Spartak the lead in the 23rd minute and then scored a fine solo goal ten minutes later.
Tottenham, without tonsillitis-hit top scorer Darren Bent and cup-tied former Spartak forward striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, were booed by their fans as they went into the break 2-0 down. If the scored remained the same and NEC managed to win by two goals against Udinese, then the London side would crash out of the UEFA Cup.
Recently-appointed Tottenham manager Harry Rednapp brought on England winger Aaron Lennon in the second-half. Lennon injected pace into the Tottenham attack and in the 67th minute burst into the Spartak area before passing to Croatian Luka Modric, who finished coolly, despite the swarm of red shirts around him.
Spartak, as so often the case, began to tire, and seven minutes later Tottenham were back on level terms, Tom Huddlestone heading home after a Gareth Bale cross with the Spartak defense again suspect.
Tottenham pressed for the winner, but Spartak held on for what, in other circumstances would have been a creditable draw. However, on the night the point was not enough to see them through as NEC beat Udinese 2-0, the goals both coming late in the 2nd half.
CSKA Moscow, the only side to win all their four group games, and Zenit St. Petersburg, who drop down from the Champions League after finishing third in their group after Juventus and Real Madrid will find out their opponents in the Round of 32 when the draw is made later on Friday in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw takes place at 1:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. Moscow time.)
Russian clubs have established a good record in the UEFA Cup in recent years, with Zenit the current holders and CSKA lifting the trophy in 2005. Despite this, both teams are a generous 20-1 to win the tournament with British bookmakers William Hill.
GROUP D (top three teams qualify)
Udinese - 9
Tottenham - 7
NEC - 6
Spartak - 4
Dynamo Zagreb - 3
