Denmark coach Alan Foss has labelled the Additional Qualifying draw which pitted his minnows against Israel, Ukraine and Belgium as "awful".

The Danes, promoted to Division A in 2005, saw their hopes in the top flight crushed as a solitary win against Estonia lit up a scorecard otherwise dominated by five defeats - twice against Croatia and Latvia, and the return fixture in Estonia.

		Chanan Colman and Denmark finished 1-5 in the EuroBasket 2007 Qualifying Round.

Now they must endure Group C ties with big-hitters Ukraine, Israel and Belgium, who toppled high-flying Russia, in a bid to avoid relegation back into European basketball's second tier.

Foss is realistic about his side's chances.

He said: "The draw was awful for us to be honest. It could not have been much worse.

"Ukraine and Israel are definitely two of the toughest teams in the qualifiers. Both were involved late on in the 2005 competition, and Belgium proved what a good side they can be by beating Russia.

"It is one very, very tough group."

Foss, however, refuses to be daunted. 

"We knew from the very start it would be tough to stay in Division A. We knew we would have to fight and that is what we will do.

"We have learnt a lot about ourselves from the last set of games and we learnt a lot about playing in this division.

"We were very good and lost very narrowly in a few of our games in the last stage, and I think the difference between us and our opponents in those games was that we were intimidated.

"Now we have no choice. We have to be tough and not be intimidated because we have the taken in our young and experienced players to stay up.

"Division B is a very tough system to escape from so we are focused on avoiding that.

"We have made huge improvements in the past four years and we will have to be at our best, that's for sure."