Tottenham nonplussed after Lazio draw

Tottenham Hotspur FC's players were keen to look for the positives after a frustrating 0-0 draw at home to S.S. Lazio on UEFA Europa League matchday one, with transfer deadline day signing Hugo Lloris pleased to have marked his debut for the club with a clean sheet.

Jan Vertonghen, Tottenham defender
We wanted to win today and Lazio are a good team, but we were better. We were at home, we were going for the three points and it is a shame we didn't do it. They are a good team and it is good to keep a clean sheet. They were here for a draw and were happy with one point. You could see after the match they had a little party, while we were very disappointed.

Steven Caulker, Tottenham defender
There was frustration, but at the same time personally I was pleased with a clean sheet and sometimes it is important not to lose the game. My aim was to break into the Spurs first team in the Premier League by the end of the season, but it is about being patient and biding my time. There are good players in front of me and I feel I'm learning every week in training.

It was a different sort of tactics to the Premier League. Lazio sat back and waited for the counterattack, but credit to them – they defended well and it was another learning experience for myself. [Miroslav] Klose is a fantastic striker and one with fantastic movement. I was learning today and pleased to keep a clean sheet.

Lazio are one of the stronger sides, so it is not a bad point. We would have liked to have won, but going into the other games we are confident we can get the goals and keep it clean at the back.

Hugo Lloris, Tottenham goalkeeper
I think it was a good game tonight. We would have liked to have won but we were not lucky. I think we had one or two opportunities to win, but Lazio are a good team and they came here to defend and they defended very well. As such, we want to take three points from the next game.

Vladimir Petković, Lazio coach
We can be satisfied with the point. We knew we would have to suffer at some point because we were up against a strong team but it was important not to create problems for ourselves with a poor approach. Tottenham were very strong physically but after the first 30 minutes we improved and did well to close down space on the flanks.

We are playing with the right mentality now. We tried to attack and impose our game even when it was not easy to do so. I'm happy because I saw that the players have faith in what they are doing. We had to defend in the second half but credit to Tottenham, who were pushing hard. They had a few dangerous set pieces but we defended well.

Federico Marchetti, Lazio goalkeeper
We knew it would be difficult to play here and that they were going to start strongly but I think we played well and had our chances. Tottenham had a few goals disallowed for offside but not much more than that.

We are happy to go home with a point. There is still a long way to go but I think we are growing game by game and we have already seen some good performances. We just need to continue on this path. When a goalkeeper doesn't concede goals he must thank the whole team as defending starts with the attackers.