Tottenham Hotspur overcame a eighth minute red card to Radu Dragusin to make a winning start to their Europa League campaign on Friday (AEST).
Romanian centre back Dragusin was sent off for a clumsy challenge on Qarabag’s Juninho outside of the Spurs penalty area with the score at 0-0.
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou gave Dragusin a frosty handshake as he left the field of play but going down to 10 men didn’t affect the London club.
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Radu Dragusin of Tottenham Hotspur shakes hands with Ange Postecoglou. Getty
Brennan Johnson scored just five minutes later before Pape Matar Sarr and Dominic Solanke struck in the second half for a comfortable 3-0 win over the Azerbaijan league leaders.
“The red card was not ideal, we started really sloppily but the reaction afterwards was good,” Postecoglou told TNT Sports.
“We wanted to press high, even with 10 men.”
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Roma blows lead
Roma allowed a late goal and settled for a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao following the Italian club’s turbulent recent stretch that included firing coach Daniele De Rossi.
Aitor Paredes headed in the equaliser in the 85th minute to offset Artem Dovbyk’s first-half goal.
Bilbao winger Nico Williams came on as a substitute for the last 30 minutes in his return from an ankle injury.
Ajax cleans up
Mika Godts had two goals and Kian Fitz-Jim and Kenneth Taylor added one each for Ajax in a 4-0 rout of Besiktas.
Czech side Viktoria Plzen scored two late goals from Prince Adu and Vaclav Jemelka to hold high-flying Eintracht Frankfurt to a 3-3 away draw.
Frankfurt, the 2022 Europa League winner, had led 3-1 on goals from Hugo Ekitike, substitute Junior Dina Ebimbe and defender Rasmus Kristensen.
Olympiacos, last year’s Conference League champion, started with a 2-0 loss to Lyon in France through second half goals by Rayan Cherki and Said Benrahma.
Braga rallied to beat nine-man Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-1.
Romania’s FCSB beat Latvia’s RFS 4-1 in Bucharest.
Fenerbahce, Rangers score early wins
Fenerbahce opened the competition with a 2-1 home win over Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise with both teams finishing the game with 10 men.
Defender Çaglar Soyuncu opened the scoring for Jose Mourinho’s team in the 26th with a half-volley from close range and Christian Burgess’ own goal in the 82nd made it 2-0 for Fenerbahce.
Ross Sykes scored in stoppage time for the visitors.
Union defender Kevin Mac Allister received a red card in the 74th minute and Fenerbahce substitute Bright Osayi-Samuel was sent off in the final minute.
Last season, Fenerbahce eliminated Union in the round of 16 of the third-tier Conference League.
Europe’s second tier is a familiar turf for Mourinho, who led Manchester United to the 2017 title.
He took the Fenerbahce job in the offseason.
With Mourinho in charge, Roma lost the 2023 final to Sevilla after a penalty shootout.
In another early game, Rangers won 2-0 at Malmo.
The 2022 Europa League beaten finalist didn’t waste time.
Nedim Bajrami scored in the opening minute and Ross McCausland scored in the second half.
Rangers lost in the 2022 final to Eintracht Frankfurt.