Manager Ange Postecoglou said Tottenham were “the kind of team we want to be” as they shook off a delayed kick-off and a very early red card to start their Europa League campaign with an impressive 3-0 home win over Qarabag.
After kick-off was put back 35 minutes because travel disruption delayed the arrival of Qarabag’s team bus, defender Radu Dragusin was shown a straight red card in the seventh minute for a cynical pull on Juninho.
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It failed to knock Tottenham off their stride though, with Brennan Johnson able to score for a third successive match five minutes later before Pape Sarr doubled the hosts’ advantage in the 52nd minute.
Qarabag did regularly threaten and Tural Bayramov fired a penalty over before record signing Dominic Solanke scored the third.
Postecoglou said: “We want to be a team that tackles whatever challenge we have in a certain way.
“When you go down to 10 men invariably at times you can’t be as aggressive or keep the ball as much or play as fluently but for the most part the intent was there.
“I think for the most part the boys showed that intent. That’s the kind of team we want to be and whatever challenge we have before us, is to tackle it that way.”
🔥 Johnson scores again!
🫡 Sarr volleys home!
🏹 Two in two for Solanke!Highlights: Spurs 3-0 Qarabag 📺 pic.twitter.com/WpOtKvhbfU
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 26, 2024
Solanke made it back-to-back goals with a slick finish in the 68th minute after Son’s shot had been spilled and earned the praise of his manager after a selfless display in attack.
“He is getting there and probably played longer than I wanted for him to play, just with the circumstances of the game, but the one thing about him is he just keeps going,” Postecoglou reflected.
“It was great for him to get another goal but his all-round performance was really strong.
“When you’re down to 10 men, you need your striker to be able to hold up the play and do some hard running, which I thought he did.”
Qarabag only arrived a short while before the scheduled start time and their manager Gurban Gurbanov revealed they had been stuck on the team bus for two-and-a-half hours.
Gurbanov said: “Imagine being caught in traffic for two-and-a-half hours? I don’t want to make excuses, but it shouldn’t have happened because we had to come by ourselves.
“We had no police to escort us and obviously it had a big impact on our footballers, but it doesn’t take anything away from our opponent. They were a good team.”
