Andre Villas-Boas gives instructions to his Tottenham Hotspur side in the Europa League clash with Lazio. Photo credit: Stephen Pond/EMPICS

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas admitted his disappointment that three Spurs goals were disallowed as they played out a stalemate against Lazio but said he couldn’t fault his side’s endeavour.

Clint Dempsey, Jermain Defoe and Steve Caulker all saw efforts chalked off but they were the dominant side for much of the Europe League group J opener.

“I think we did enough to get the win today,” Villas-Boas told ITV4. “I am extremely happy with the performance and the effort that the players put in.

“You can’t reprimand them for anything, they were outstanding.

“They managed to create enough opportunities to win the game.

“The team put the ball in the back of the net three times, but all the goals were disallowed by the ref, so it’s a bit disappointing.

“It shows that we are on the right track to giving something back to the fans.

“We were superior against a team that is doing extremely well. We can be happy with that performance.”