Spartak Moscow's UEFA Cup efforts

Michael Laudrup's Spartak Moscow has been drawn into Group D of the UEFA Cup.

The competition now enters the Group Stage with the top three clubs surviving to the next round. Divided into eight groups of five clubs, the matches begin on the 23rd of October, continuing on November 6 and 27 and followed-up on 3/4 and 17/18 December. At that time the round of thirty-two will commence with the teams that finished first and third will be paired, with the runners-up meeting the clubs presently competing in the UEFA Champions League.

Spartak Moscow's group includes an intriguing match-up of Roman Pavlyuchenko who left Spartak for Tottenham of England's Premier League, Udinese of Serie A, NEC Nijmegen of the Eredivisie and legendary Croatia club Dinamo Zagreb who are lead by Branko Ivanković.

This will be an exciting group with Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Zagreb likely to be the best within a international style tournament.