Tottenham Hotspur have suffered their first Europa League defeat of the season with a 1-0 loss at Russian side Rubin Kazan.
The home side could have scored two goals in as many minutes in the first half, but Alan Kasaev's volley went narrowly over the crossbar, while Christian Noboa's shot was saved by Carlo Cudicini.
Meanwhile, Roman Pavlyuchenko had a good chance at the other end, but the Russian saw his shot sail high and wide.
The striker came close again just before the break, but he couldn't latch onto Jermain Defoe's teasing cross.
Cudicini pulled off a string of saves to keep Spurs in the match before the deadlock was broken on 54 minutes. Natcho lined up a free kick on the edge of the area before he curled the ball into the top-left corner.
Cudicini kept the score at 1-0 when he parried Alexander Ryazantsev's powerful shot, and the keeper was called upon again with ten minutes to play when he saved
Gökdeniz Karadeniz's downward header with his legs.
On-loan Falque had a half-chance for the visitors in injury time but the forward could not get the ball out of his feet to get a shot away.
Jack Prescott
