Pelle Mattsson put City in front, but then deflected Andre Dozzell’s late inswinging free kick past Vladan Kovacevic at Carrow Road.

Clement made four changes to his starting line up, and left globe-trotting trio Ali Ahmed, Anis Ben Slimane and Jose Cordoba on the bench from the kick-off.

Ahmed and Slimane played in the early hours of Wednesday before a transatlantic dash from Canada, while Cordoba featured for 160 minutes in Panama’s two friendlies both played in South Africa.

Clement had already voiced his fears about the potential impact on this round of Championship fixtures before Friday’s stalemate.

“I was disappointed with some decisions of some national coaches who didn’t stick to the plans that were before the game around that,” said the City chief. “But it is what it is, and we need to look towards Millwall.

“There’s a reason why these guys are internationals and why they stepped up, and why several of them will play a World Cup. I don’t speak about all the guys who are out injured, also, if you miss them then that has consequences, and it was maybe a little bit too much, but all the others were doing their ultimate best to get the three points.

“If you win 1-0 and you keep again a clean sheet it is a very different feeling. And we were really, really close to that, because, okay, this one ball falls in between people and it’s a goal, but it’s the only ball on target. So let’s not live too much in the emotions, and let’s continue the story that the squad is doing.”

Clement admitted relegation-threatened Portsmouth carried an aerial threat from set pieces that proved a challenge.

“That’s football, and we need to keep them better out of the box. If you score the second goal it’s different, and then something like this can happen, and you still have the three points,” he said. “We had several good moments where we missed the last pass, the last action to kill it off. I think we were clearly the best team on the ball, maybe not the best team in the air.

“And you concede a goal like that it’s a pity. It’s also so late in the game that you don’t have much time to react and to make the second goal.

“We missed the second goal to kill the belief on the other side. And like this, they stay in the game. It’s a lot of long balls, a lot of fights, second balls, free kicks, corners. We didn’t concede many chances. It was one shot on target, but they get a point with that, so they will be really happy.”

Clement spoke to the media at Carrow Road on Friday afternoon.