Antonio Conte's Tottenham Hotspurs much-changed side were embarrassed by Slovenian minnows NS Mura to leave their Europa Conference League last-16 hopes hanging by a thread.

After the loss in Slovenia, where Amadej Marosa's injury-time goal clinched the unexpected victory after Harry Kane appeared to have salvaged a point for 10-man Spurs, the Italian chose not to speak to his players.

After Tommy Horvat opened the scoring and Ryan Sessegnon's red card, Kane added one for Spurs' for the leveler but Marosa, on the other hand, took advantage of some sloppy late defending by Davinson Sanchez to startle the Premier League squad.

Former Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle said the team's first-half performance was "dreadful".

"I did not like what happened tonight," said Conte. "I must be honest and tell you that after three-and-a-half weeks, I am starting to understand the situation.

"I am happy to stay here but at the same time I must be honest and tell you we need to work a lot to improve the quality of the squad. We are Tottenham and in this moment there is an important gap [to the top teams in England].

"It is not simple because, in this moment for sure, the level of Tottenham is not so high.

"We need time, but we have to do better in everything, everything, everything."

In their last group game, they face Rennes, who are already certain of first place after a 0-0 draw with Vitesse Arnhem on Thursday.

The Dutch side are level on points with Conte's side and host Mura in their final match. Both games take place on 9 December.

Finishing second in the group would mean a two-legged play-off for Spurs to reach the last 16, with both games being played in February.

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Former Australia Test captain, Tim Paine will miss the Ashes series against England after announcing a brief hiatus from cricket.

Last Monday, the wicketkeeper resigned as captain following a probe into sexually graphic emails he sent to a female colleague in 2017.

Cricket Tasmania announced in a statement that 36-year-old Paine had informed them that he would be taking a leave of absence "for the foreseeable future."

"We will continue to support Tim and his family both professionally and personally over the summer," it continued.

The state association's head, Andrew Gaggin, said earlier this week that Paine's treatment by Cricket Australia had been "appalling."

On Twitter, Paine's manager, James Henderson, announced that the player was taking a "indefinite mental health hiatus."

In November 2017, Paine exchanged texts to a coworker at Cricket Tasmania, prompting a misconduct investigation after she made charges against him in 2018.

Cricket Australia (CA) cleared him of any infraction of their code of conduct at the time, and Cricket Tasmania decided "no further action was required or warranted," he said.

Paine resigned at a teary press conference in Hobart after discovering the messages would be made public, claiming his conduct did not fit the "standard of an Australian cricket captain, or the wider community."

Australia's first Test against England will take place in Brisbane on December 8th.