Sevilla 2 Tottenham 1:  Tottenham suffered a narrow defeat in their Uefa Cup quarter-final first leg against Sevilla in a match which was marred by crowd disturbances involving visiting fans.

Spurs had won all eight of their Uefa Cup matches during this season's competition, but that record came to an end at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium as reigning champions Sevilla edged an exciting contest 2-1.

Robbie Keane gave his side the perfect start with an opening goal after less than 90 seconds but Sevilla hit back through a controversially-awarded penalty from former White Hart Lane favourite Frederic Kanoute and a header from Alexander Kerzhakov.

But the game threatened to be overshadowed by another incident involving riot police and travelling English fans.

Just 24 hours after Italian riot police clashed with Manchester United supporters during a Champions League match in Rome, similar scenes occurred in Seville.

Riot police used batons to disperse a group of Spurs fans who had congregated near the hotel where the Sevilla team were located an hour before the game.

Around 50 Spurs fans were chanting, gesticulating and causing an obstruction for passing vehicles in the street.

The first 30 minutes of the match itself passed with little incident in the stands, but then riot police entered the section of the stadium where the Spurs fans were located.

Seats were torn out and thrown at the police as ugly scenes threatened to overshadow what was an exciting match.

The confrontation between the Spurs fans and the police continued for around five minutes until Sevilla netted their second goal in the 36th minute.

Trouble flared again during the half-time interval, with seats again being thrown as the riot police moved in — but things calmed down after their departure at the start of the second half.

On the pitch, Spurs were unable to capitalise on a perfect start after Keane put them ahead with the first chance of the match.

The Dubliner latched onto a Dimitar Berbatov pass inside the Sevilla penalty area and slotted home at the second attempt after home goalkeeper Andres Palop had blocked his first effort.

Good work on the right by Aaron Lennon almost produced a second opening for Keane in the 12th minute, but the winger's pass was just too heavy for his team-mate and Palop was able to gather.

Sevilla were struggling to create much going forward in the early stages as Spurs' makeshift defence, which saw Pascal Chimbonda playing at centre-back, comfortably dealt with the home side.

However, the hosts were gifted a chance to get back in the game in the 18th minute when they were awarded a controversial penalty.

Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson looked to have made a brilliant sprawling block to deny Adriano, but referee Alain Hamer deemed the challenge to be illegal and pointed to the spot.

The Spurs players protested against the decision and Robinson was shown a yellow card, but the penalty stood and their former striker Kanoute stepped up to level the scores.

The England goalkeeper could do little to prevent Kerzhakov putting Sevilla in front in the 36th minute, the striker heading home Julien Escude's headed pass.

That was a major setback for Spurs but they had a great chance to equalise just three minutes later.

Jenas curled in a free-kick to the far post where the unmarked Michael Dawson headed wide when he should at least have hit the target as Spurs went in at half-time 2-1 down.

Sevilla came within inches of netting a third goal in the 73rd minute when Kanoute got his head to an Adriano cross, but the Mali international's effort flew just wide of the far post with Robinson beaten.

Jol made his first substitution of the night with 10 minutes remaining, sending on Steed Malbranque for Lennon, and soon after that the Dutchman replaced Teemu Tainio with Hossam Ghaly.

Malbranque was quickly in the action with a shot that went wide, but Spurs were unable to make the breakthrough as Sevilla held on to earn a narrow advantage ahead of next week's second leg at White Hart Lane.  PA