Partizan Belgrade 0-0 Asteras Tripoli

Partizan Belgrade ended their Europa League campaign winless as they were held at home by Asteras Tripoli.

The Serbian side dominated their final Group C encounter on Thursday for large periods but were held at bay by resilient Greek opponents who had already created club history by competing at this stage of the Europa League for the first time.

Asteras were one of only four teams in the group stage who had started out in the second qualifying round but they lost only two of their six matches - home and away to Tottenham - and beat Partizan 2-0 when the two sides met in Greece on matchday two.

The little-known Greeks had goalkeeper Kostas Theodoropoulos to thank for their goalless draw in Belgrade as Partizan finished bottom of the group with only two points.

Partizan dominated the early stages and almost took an eighth-minute lead through Nikola Ninkovic but his 18-yard shot was well parried by Theodoropoulos before Sasa Markovic and Vojislav Stankovic also went close to breaking the deadlock.

Vladimir Volkov also tested Theodoropoulos before Asteras managed their first on-target attempt on the half-hour mark, Giannis Gianniotas' 25-yard curler pushed away by Partizan goalkeeper Milan Lukac.

Nikola Drincic forced another save from Theodoropoulos but there was more hope for Asteras close to the interval when Anastasios Bakasetas broke through but failed to control his shot from 12 yards.

Partizan were within inches of taking the lead two minutes after the restart when Ninkovic struck a post after Athanasios Panteliadis' poor clearance fell to him and Theodoropoulos again denied the striker from 20 yards moments later.

The home side's growing frustration was reflected by bookings in the space of 15 second-half minutes for Drincic, Branko Ilic and Volkov and Asteras almost won it in injury time when Lukac denied Pablo Mazza from six yards with his feet.

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