Tottenham Hotspur and Eintracht Frankfurt played out an entertaining 0-0 draw in the Champions League on Tuesday night, with the story of the 90 minutes being very much one of missed opportunities.
A relatively quiet first half picked up somewhat towards the end, with Tottenham beginning to bare their teeth, but it was Frankfurt who had managed the one shot on target at the interval, in an otherwise poor quality opening 45 minutes.
The second half saw the game open up far more, with both sides having their fair share of periods of pressure on the other, yet while the quantity of chances may have increased, the quality of the finishes did not.
Time and time again, efforts went wide, over the bar, or into the grateful grasps of the respective goalkeepers, leaving Antonio Conte in particular a frustrated figure on the sidelines as the game wore on.
Oliver Glasner's side too had their own chances, albeit not quite as many, though given the number of shots they faced on their own goal, the Austrian boss will be the happier of the two coaches at taking a point from the game.
It is a result which leaves all of the four teams in Group D within three points of one another, while for Spurs specifically, they have now gone seven games without a win in away European fixtures, a record that will surely need to improve if they want to go far in this season's competition.
Story of the Match
The hosts made one change from their 2-0 victory over Union Berlin - who are currently top of the Bundesliga - at the weekend, with Kristijan Jakic and Djibril Sow coming in at wing-back and central midfield respectively.
Meanwhile, the English visitors had also played the team top of their domestic league in their previous match, in the form of North London rivals Arsenal - a game they lost 3-1 - but Conte opted not to make any changes to his starting eleven from that game.
In the early kick-off, bottom of the group Marseille had beaten the team at the top in Sporting Lisbon, meaning that as this game got underway, there were three teams all on three points each, the incentive for a win made all the more appealing.
This being Frankfurt's first ever Champions League campaign, the fans were at fever pitch right from the start, with a deafening noise echoing around the Deutsche Bank Park.
If the atmosphere in the stands was electric though, the action on the pitch appeared to be lacking the spark it needed to get it going - the only minor opportunities within the first 15 minutes came when Emerson Royal got on the end of a long ball from Eric Dier, but fired over the bar, and when Heung-Min Son's cross evaded the touch of Harry Kane at the back post.
Having absorbed pressure from Spurs, the home side suddenly turned up their own intensity, creating a chance of their own for the first time with a little under 20 minutes on the clock when Sebastian Rode saw his shot blocked by Ivan Perisic.
A flurry of corners then followed for the Eagles, with Tottenham seemingly unable to escape their own half for a brief period of time, but for all the possession the home team enjoyed, shots on target were nowhere to be seen.
It was a similar situation for Conte's side; there were some neat passing moves in attack, particularly involving Son and Kane, but Kevin Trapp in the opposition goal remained untroubled past the midway point of the first half.
An awkward volley attempt from Rode did finally produce a save from Hugo Lloris - albeit a very comfortable one - before Son had a chance to open the scoring when he got the ball on the edge of the box, sending his curling effort wide, but it was not nearly enough to get a neutral off their seat.
The best opportunity of the first half came a few minutes before the break, when Emerson's low cross found Perisic mere yards in front of goal, with his scuffed shot being deflected inches wide of the post.
As the two teams went back down the tunnel for half time, Spurs likely felt that, had it not been for their lack of clinical finishing, they would have been ahead with the quality of chances they had created, but as it was the two teams were level at the break.