All smiles for Tottenham's Pavlyuchenko

Tottenham Hotspur FC striker Roman Pavlyuchenko was delighted to score the only goal against FC Rubin Kazan but told UEFA.com that his superb strike was a hit-and-hope affair.

The Russian international found the net against his countrymen in the 33rd minute with a blistering free-kick from a central position just outside the D. "It felt great – maybe if the free-kick had been a metre closer it would've just hit the crossbar, but there wasn't a problem," he said.

"There was no plan. I just hit the ball hard and hoped it went in. It was a great goal, but all goals are beautiful, you remember them all. I simply scored a great goal and in general the victory was excellent. It was a good win. I like Rubin, they're a good team – very dangerous and everywhere they go they look strong."

Tottenham left-back Benoît Assou-Ekotto understood the joy which the goal would have given Pavlyuchenko, a former FC Spartak Moskva forward. "It was very important for him to score against a Russian team," said the French-born Cameroonian international. "If I played against a team from France I would like to score, so I guess he's very happy with that. We played with young boys tonight and they did well, so it's good for the future."

The immediate future, in the UEFA Europa League at least, involves Spurs travelling to Kazan for the return fixture in a fortnight, when a win would take Harry Redknapp's side through with two games to play. Will they win Group A?

"We've still got some games to go, so we'll just have to wait," said Pavlyuchenko. "The task for me is to always play better, go further and then who knows where we could end up?" Bucharest on Wednesday 9 May is the ultimate aim.