HT Dynamo Kiev 0-0 Stoke: Hosts harry Potters

Stoke survived a first-half onslaught to go in goalless at the interval in their Europa League Group E clash with Dynamo Kiev at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium.

The Ukrainian hosts dominated the opening 45 minutes and should have gone ahead when Andriy Yarmolenko blazed wide with the goal at his mercy.

In contrast, the Potters struggled to create anything going forward and had four bookings to show for their efforts.

Cameron Jerome made his Stoke debut and fellow deadline day recruit Wilson Palacios was also in an XI showing eight changes from Saturday's Barclays Premier League victory over Liverpool.

Kenwyne Jones came into the attack as record signing Peter Crouch - the other man to join the Staffordshire outfit just before the transfer window closed - was one of several players who had not made the trip to Ukraine.

Another, Asmir Begovic, was replaced in goal by Thomas Sorensen, while the hosts' starting line-up featured former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis had sent out his side in a defensive formation and they soaked up plenty of pressure in the opening stages.

Ryan Shotton did send a long throw into the box in the fifth minute that was claimed by keeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, but otherwise it was one-way traffic with Goran Popov, Yarmolenko and Denys Garmash sending shots off-target.

Shevchenko then took a short corner and played a one-two with Milos Ninkovic before rifling an effort wide.

Dynamo should have taken the lead in the 20th minute when Sorensen parried a fierce strike from Popov, but Yarmolenko could not convert the follow-up from close range.

That seemed to stir the Potters a little and Shotton drilled wide after the hosts failed to clear a corner.

Dynamo were soon back on the front foot, though, with Ninkovic shooting into Sorensen's arms and Shevchenko thumping a free-kick into the Stoke wall.

The home side went close again just after the half-hour mark when Artem Milevskyi's drive bounced off Sorensen, but the Dane dived to catch the ball at the second attempt.

In a rare chance at the other end Jones was unable to get much power on a header from Glenn Whelan's free-kick and towards the end of the half, Stoke's frustration began to show as they picked up a flurry of bookings.

Salif Diao had already been shown a yellow card and three of his team-mates - Matthew Upson, Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth - followed suit in the space of four minutes before the referee blew the whistle for half-time.