Young Boys stuns Tottenham

PARIS: Roman Pavlyuchenko's late goal allowed Tottenham to escape from a lacklustre performance with a narrow 3-2 defeat at Swiss side Young Boys in the first leg of their Champions League play-off.

The result means a 1-0 win in next week's return leg at White Hart Lane will be enough to take Spurs through, but for long patches of the match their Champions League dreams looked in serious jeopardy.

Harry Redknapp's team were heavily tipped to reach the competition's group phase for the first time after what was widely seen as a favourable draw, but they were caught cold by three goals inside the first 30 minutes in Bern.

Senad Lulic had already rattled Heurelho Gomes's left-hand post when the ball fell to him following a kind ricochet, and he coolly placed a shot into the bottom-right corner to put his side 1-0 up after less than four minutes.

The visitors barely had time to gather their senses before Henri Bienvenu powered through the Spurs defence and tucked the ball neatly past Gomes to double the score just after the quarter-hour.

The home fans at the Stade de Suisse could hardly believe their eyes when Xavier Hochstrasser smashed in a third in the 28th minute but Tottenham finally responded minutes before the break, with Sebastien Bassong heading home.

Substitute Christian Schneuwly twice spurned chances to extend the hosts' lead in the second half and Vladimir Petkovic's men were made to pay in the 83rd minute when Pavlyuchenko crashed a fine finish into the roof of the net.

Four-time European champion Ajax's tie with Dynamo Kiev is finely poised after a 1-1 draw in the Ukrainian capital.

The results: Zenit St-Petersburg 1 (Kerzhakov 3) bt Auxerre 0; Young Boys 3 (Lulic 4, Bienvenu 13, Hochstrasser 28) bt Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Bassong 42, Pavlyuchenko 83); Rosenborg 2 (Iversen 23, Henriksen 57) bt FC Copenhagen 1 (Gronkjaer 84); Dynamo Kiev 1 (Gusev 66) drew with Ajax 1 (Vertonghen 57); Sparta Prague 0 lost to MSK Zilina 2 (Ceesay 51, Oravec 73) . — Agencies