Tottenham 3-0 Qarabag: 10-man Spurs erve up mayhem amid London journey chaos as they win regardless of having Radu Dragusin despatched off after simply seven minutes 

London produced one other episode of its infamous journey chaos on the streets exterior and Ange Postecoglou served up his personal model of mayhem on the pitch inside as Tottenham began their European journey in thrilling model.

There was a late begin and an early setback, however neither may cease Spurs as they scored three towards Qarabag of Azerbaijan regardless of enjoying many of the sport with 10 males.

Radu Dragusin was dismissed within the seventh minute for denying a goalscoring alternative, however Postecoglou by no means actually thought-about sitting again and enjoying with warning.

As a substitute, he shored up his again 4 and left three up entrance and his staff continued to pour ahead.

Brennan Johnson gave them the lead together with his third objective in 9 days and Pape Matar Sarr grabbed the second, quickly after the interval earlier than Dominic Solanke accomplished the scoring.

However there have been loads of scares on the different finish. Qarabag missed a penalty and hit a publish when it was 2-0 and compelled late saves from Guglielmo Vicario however Postecoglou’s staff deserved their successful begin within the Europa League.

Tottenham have gained three in a row for the reason that North London derby defeat towards Arsenal and go to Manchester United on Sunday with momentum constructing and strikers scoring.

Gridlock on the streets of north London created a temper of pre-match chaos. Qarabag have been caught up in visitors and didn’t make it to the stadium till quarter-hour earlier than the scheduled kick-off at 8pm. 

The Azeri champions had stayed in a lodge 12 miles away in Stratford, however rail and highway closures mixed to wreak havoc on all these certain for N17, together with hundreds of supporters.

TNT Sport pundits Peter Crouch and Glenn Hoddle needed to leap out of their automobile and set out into the pouring rain on foot. ‘We gave up with the automobile,’ stated Crouch. ‘We have been head down and legging it by.’ Hoddle added: ‘Peter ran, and I limped.’

Qarabag usually are not the primary to be caught out by the notoriously congested streets round Tottenham, whose earlier European dwelling fixture was delayed by 10 minutes when each groups arrived late as a result of dangerous visitors.

That was towards AC Milan within the second leg of a final 16 Champions League tie in March 2023, when Antonio Conte‘s Spurs staff have been unable to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the primary leg and crashed out.

The Qarabag staff bus lastly arrived with the assistance of a police escort alongside the final mile of the journey. Lengthy-serving head coach Gurban Gurbanov appeared distinctly unimpressed as he disembarked however agreed to organize as shortly as doable and intention for a kick off at 8.35pm.

In actual fact, it was two minutes later by the point they acquired underneath approach and the guests began brightly as if thrilled to be shifting freely as soon as once more. Spurs have been caught out by their tempo and decreased to 10 males inside solely seven minutes.

Dragusin’s contact was poor as he collected a move from Micky van de Ven and Juninho pounced with terrific pace off the mark, touching the ball clear and set off in pursuit.

He appeared set to speed up away in direction of objective when he grew to become entangled with Dragusin’s determined efforts to get well and was taken down. French referee Willy Delajod produced a purple card with out hesitation.

The Romanian trudged off and Postecoglou reshuffled. Off got here Lucas Bergvall, the teenage midfielder changed by left again Future Udogie, with Ben Davies shifting into the centre alongside Van de Ven.

Postecoglou had made six adjustments to the staff that began the Premier League win towards Brentford on Saturday however chosen his strongest ahead line and it was to his credit score that he saved all three of them on after the purple card.

Reward for his danger got here shortly when Solanke and Pape Matar Sarr pressured an error from Julio Romao and Johnson produced a medical end, first time from Solanke’s move.

Johnson missed an opportunity to increase the lead earlier than he was changed at half time. The Wales winger gained a race to a move from Archie Grey and nudged it previous Qarabag goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski on the nook of the penalty space.

It was a not easy, it required an on the spot shot from a tough place with defenders scrambling again to cowl and Johnson rolled his shot large.

Qarabag, seasoned European campaigners who gave eventual runners-up Bayer Leverkusen a severe scare within the last-16 final season, have been vulnerable on the again to Tottenham’s urgent however at all times harmful on the break particularly as soon as they’d the numerical edge.

They completed the primary half on high with out making their probabilities rely. Brazilian striker Juninho wriggled away from Davies solely to slip the very best of them large when he should have scored.

Sarr scored Tottenham’s second, a side-foot volley on the again publish after keeper Kochalski flapped at a nook. It ought to have introduced a level of composure to the sport however nonetheless it hurtled on a full pace.

Qarabag continued to overlook probabilities, together with a penalty, awarded for a doubtful foul by Yves Bissouma on raiding left again Elvin Jafarguliyev. Tural Bayramov stepped up and fired it over, clipping the bar on the best way.

Juninho hit a publish too, earlier than Solanke made it 3-0 firing within the rebound when Kochalski failed to carry a shot by Heung-min Son. Nonetheless, Qarabag refused to yield.

Jafarguliyev pressured a flying save from Vicario and Juninho had a header dominated out for offside within the closing minutes however Spurs have been out of the jam by then.