LONDON — Tottenham Hotspur got their Europa League campaign off to the perfect start on Thursday as they overcame Qarabag 3-0 at home, despite being forced to play the majority of the match with 10 men after defender Radu Dragusin was shown an early red card.
Brennan Johnson’s third goal in as many games put Spurs ahead before Pape Matar Sarr and Dominic Solanke made the points safe in the second half.
Tottenham’s victory came after kickoff was delayed by 35 minutes due to “severe travel disruption” in the local area. The Qarabag team was caught up in the chaos caused by heavy rain that caused the MetOffice to issue a “yellow weather warning.”
Having waited for more than half an hour for the game to start, fans didn’t have to wait for long for the on-pitch drama to begin.
Dragusin was shown a straight red card in the seventh minute for hauling down Juninho as the last man after the Qarabag forward robbed him of possession deep inside the Spurs half.
The Romania international’s red card prompted Postecoglou to swap midfielder Lucas Bergvall for Destiny Udogie as he sought to restore some balance to his team.
“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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Whether by fortune or design, it took Spurs a matter of seconds after the substitution to open the scoring. Solanke set up Johnson to score in his third successive game, finishing confidently across Qarabag goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski.
Postecoglou’s team showed little willingness to follow Arsenal’s lead from their draw with Manchester City on Sunday as they continued pressing high up the pitch despite being a man light. Their high defensive line left space in behind that was almost exploited by the lively Juninho, but the Qarabag forward sent a presentable chance wide of Guglielmo Vicario’s goal in the 40th minute.
Sarr doubled Spurs’ lead shortly after half-time, punishing Kochalski for a weak punch clear by volleying an effort into the bottom corner despite the best efforts of a man on the line to keep it out.
Spurs rode their luck six minutes later after Yves Bissouma gave away a penalty for a lunge on Elvin Cafarquliyev inside the box.
Unfortunately for the visitors, Tural Bayramov saw his spot kick clip the top of the crossbar on its way over Vicario’s goal.
Solanke scored his second Spurs goal to put the result beyond doubt in the 68th minute. Similar to his maiden strike for the club against Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday, the Spurs No. 19 was presented with an open goal to finish into after a teammate — Son Heung-Min this time — saw an effort parried by the goalkeeper.
It proved to be Son’s final involvement in the game as he limped off the pitch after receiving treatment from the physio.
Despite the scoreline, Qarabag continued to pose a threat. Juninho saw a header narrowly ruled out for offside either side of two fine saves from Vicario to deny goal-bound strikes from Yassine Benzia and Cafarquliyev.
Postecoglou delighted the home crowd by introducing much-hyped 17-year-old Mikey Moore for the closing stages, but he struggled to get involved in the game as Spurs played out the last few minutes without major incident.
Spurs travel to face Hungarian side Ferencváros in their next Europa League fixture on Oct. 3 after facing Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.