London produced another episode of its notorious travel chaos on the streets outside and Ange Postecoglou served up his own brand of mayhem on the pitch inside as Tottenham started their European adventure in thrilling style.
There was a late start and an early setback, but neither could stop Spurs as they scored three against Qarabag of Azerbaijan despite playing most of the game with 10 men.
Radu Dragusin was dismissed in the seventh minute for denying a goalscoring opportunity, but Postecoglou never really considered sitting back and playing with caution.
Instead, he shored up his back four and left three up front and his team continued to pour forward.
Brennan Johnson gave them the lead with his third goal in nine days and Pape Matar Sarr grabbed the second soon after the interval before Dominic Solanke completed the scoring.
Tottenham eased to a comfortable win over Qarabag, with Dominic Solanke among the scorers
Defender Radu Dragusin was sent off after seven minutes with the score still at 0-0
Brennan Johnson, however, got the ball rolling with his third goal in as many games for Spurs
But there were plenty of scares at the other end. Qarabag missed a penalty and hit a post when it was 2-0, had a goal ruled out at 3-0 and forced late saves from Guglielmo Vicario but Postecoglou’s team deserved their winning start in the Europa League.
‘We want to be a team that tackles whatever challenge in a certain way,’ said Postecoglou. ‘When you go down to 10 and at times you can’t be as aggressive but for the most part the intent was there.’
Tottenham have won three in a row since the North London derby defeat against Arsenal and go to Manchester United on Sunday with momentum building and strikers scoring.
Qarabag were caught up in traffic and did not make it to the stadium until 15 minutes before the scheduled kick-off at 8pm.
The Azeri champions had stayed in a hotel 12 miles away in Stratford, but rail and road closures combined to wreak havoc on all those bound for N17, including thousands of supporters.
TNT Sport pundits Peter Crouch and Glenn Hoddle had to jump out of their vehicle and set out into the pouring rain on foot. ‘We gave up with the car,’ said Crouch. ‘We were head down and legging it through.’ Hoddle added: ‘Peter ran, and I limped.’
Qarabag are not the first to be caught out by the notoriously congested streets around Tottenham, whose previous European home fixture was delayed by 10 minutes when both teams arrived late due to bad traffic.
That was against AC Milan in the second leg of a last 16 Champions League tie in March 2023, when Antonio Conte’s Spurs team were unable to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg and crashed out.
The Qarabag team bus finally arrived and long-serving head coach Gurban Gurbanov appeared distinctly unimpressed as he was told he had 40 minutes to prepare.
‘Imagine you are caught in traffic for more than two and a half hours,’ said Gurbanov. ‘I do not want to make excuses but it shouldn’t have happened. There were no police to escort us, and it obviously had a big impact on our footballers.
‘That doesn’t take anything from our opponents. They are a good team but when we arrived we were not as ready as we should have been.’
Tottenham had to rely on Guglielmo Vicario more than once to keep their clean sheet
Dragusin’s red card came after a poor touch and Juninho pounced, only to be bundled over
Later in the game, Tural Bayramov stepped up to take a penalty but blazed it over the bar
It didn’t seem that way as the visitors started brightly and it was Spurs who were caught cold by their pace and energy, and quickly reduced to 10 men. ‘Really sloppy, really passive and we shot ourselves in the foot,’ said Postecoglou.
Dragusin’s touch was poor as he collected a pass from Micky van de Ven and Juninho pounced with terrific speed off the mark, touching the ball clear and set off in pursuit.
He seemed set to accelerate away towards goal when he became entangled with Dragusin’s desperate efforts to recover and was taken down. French referee Willy Delajod produced a red card without hesitation.
The Romanian trudged off and Postecoglou reshuffled but was never going to sit back. He kept three forwards on after the red card and reward for his risk came when Solanke and Sarr forced an error from Julio Romao and Johnson produced a crisp finish from Solanke’s pass.
Johnson missed a chance to extend the lead before he was replaced at half time. The Wales winger won a race to a pass from Archie Gray and nudged it past Qarabag goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski on the corner of the penalty area.
It was a not simple, it required an instant shot from a difficult position with defenders scrambling back to cover and Johnson rolled his shot wide.
Qarabag were susceptible at the back to Tottenham’s pressing but always dangerous on the break especially once they had the numerical edge.
They finished the first half on top without making their chances count. Brazilian striker Juninho wriggled away from Davies only to slide the best of them wide when he ought to have scored.
Pape Matar Sarr (right) scored Spurs’ second, side-footing a volley in at the back post after a corner
Ange Postecoglou’s side are favourites to win the competition are are now up and running
Sarr scored Tottenham’s second, a side-foot volley at the back post after keeper Kochalski flapped at a corner. It should have brought a degree of composure to the game but still it hurtled on a full speed.
Qarabag continued to miss chances, including a penalty, awarded for a dubious foul by Yves Bissouma on raiding left back Elvin Jafarguliyev. Tural Bayramov stepped up and fired it over, clipping the bar on the way.
Juninho hit a post too, before Solanke made it 3-0 firing in the rebound when Kochalski failed to hold a shot by Heung-min Son. Still, Qarabag refused to yield.
Jafarguliyev forced a flying save from Vicario and Juninho had a header ruled out for offside in the closing minutes but Spurs were out of the jam by then.
