Tottenham battle for point at Partizan Belgrade

Tottenham held firm in intimidating conditions to kick off the Europa League group stage with a hard-fought, goalless draw at Partizan Belgrade.

- Partizan Belgrade banner criticised by Pochettino

Given manager Mauricio Pochettino left five key players in north London for this match, it was always likely to be a tough test, and so it proved.

Spurs lacked creativity but defended resolutely to secure a 0-0 draw in a daunting atmosphere at Partizan Stadium.

The game began brightly as Harry Kane rattled the crossbar inside the opening two minutes.

That, though, was to prove Spurs' best chance as they struggled to create clear-cut opportunities and spent large parts of the match on the back foot.

Federico Fazio and Benjamin Stambouli were handed their full debuts as Pochettino shuffled the pack, with Hugo Lloris the only survivor from Saturday's 2-2 draw at Sunderland.

It would have been easy for Spurs to get intimidated, yet they began fantastically and almost took the lead after 65 seconds.

The ball fell to Kane after a Ben Davies corner, with the striker showing impressive composure to get away a shot from an acute angle, rattling the underside of the bar.

It was the only noteworthy shot Spurs managed during the opening exchanges, though, with Andros Townsend having an effort blocked and Nabil Bentaleb, Aaron Lennon and Kyle Naughton all failing to find their targets with passes of differing quality.

Pochettino's men were dominating possession but Partizan were looking dangerous, with their first chance coming after 15 minutes when Petar Grbic impressively cut inside to square for Danko Lazovic, whose shot was quickly blocked.

The hosts came close again 10 minutes later when the previousl -- assured Fazio misread a long throw into the box, putting Lazovic through only for a timely block and clearance to save the new signing's blushes.

Paulinho and Kane had efforts when Spurs returned to the attack either side of a deflected strike from Townsend, who was given a booking for dissent as half-time approached.

In truth, Spurs were a touch fortunate to go in at half-time level after being caught on the counter-attack in stoppage time. A quick break from a Spurs corner saw Danilo Pantic put through down the right, but the 17-year-old was unable to beat Lloris.

Davies was booked as Partizan continued on the front foot after the interval, with Jan Vertonghen having to produce a timely block on Lazovic before Grbic's tame follow-up went straight to Lloris.

Spurs introduced Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela with 30 minutes remaining as they searched for a spark, which almost worked immediately when the two combined only for the former's cross just to evade Kane.

Pantic and captain Sasa Ilic missed the target as Partizan looked for a winner as fire-crackers echoed around Partizan Stadium, where Kane could not beat the wall with a free-kick as the clock wound down.