Slavia Prague - 0 Tottenham - 1: A first-half goal from Jermaine Jenas gave lacklustre Tottenham the advantage over a poor Slavia Prague side on the north London club's return to the European stage. Spurs produced a performance that mirrored their rather inauspicious start to the Premiership campaign in last night's Uefa Cup first round first leg clash.
Without the services of England winger Aaron Lennon - who will have an operation on a knee injury on Saturday that will sideline him for six weeks - Martin Jol's men were strangely lacking in passion against their inexperienced opponents.
Slavia may not have possessed the same kind of quality as their illustrious opponents but they matched them for effort and endeavour in all departments in the opening 20 minutes. Paul Robinson was first forced into action when Dusan Svento's promising run and cross forced the England goalkeeper to punch clear.
On the half-hour Spurs forced Prague's substitute goalkeeper Matus Kozacik into action just moments after he'd replaced injured Michal Vorel. Kozacik dived to his right to ensure Pascal Chimbonda's header did not find its way into the corner after the Spurs right-back had met Jenas' corner at the far post.
Spurs took the lead with their first clever move of the game in the 38th minute - and it was made entirely by the powerful run of fellow midfielder Didier Zokora. The Ivorian ran fully 50 yards unchallenged before laying the ball off to the waiting Jenas, who drilled a low shot into the bottom corner for his second goal of the season.
Slavia almost got back on level terms in the 61st minute when Tomas Hrdlicka sent a left-foot effort just wide of Robinson's right-hand post. The home side were now causing Spurs some real problems and in the 67th minute Robinson pulled off a double save to preserve Tottenham's lead, beating away a Svento free-kick before denying Stanislav Vlcek.
Tottenham replaced Defoe with Robbie Keane in the 79th minute and the Republic of Ireland striker almost added to Tottenham's lead in the 87th minute when he raced on to a through-ball from Jenas - only to see his shot beaten away by the onrushing Kozacik.
SLAVIA PRAGUE: Michal Vorel, Svec, Latka, Suchy, Hubacek,Janda, Jarolim, Hrdlicka, Svento, Vlcek, Gaucho. Subs: Kozacik, Dosoudil, Gecov, Fort, Necas, Necid, Aracic.
TOTTENHAM: Robinson, Chimbonda, Dawson, King, Assou-Ekotto, Jenas, Huddlestone, Zokora, Tainio, Defoe, Mido. Subs: Cerny, Lee, Stalteri, Davids, Keane, Ziegler, Davenport.
Referee: Herve Piccirillo (France)
