Tottenham started their Europa League campaign with an impressive 3-0 home win over Qarabag despite playing 83 minutes with 10 men.
After kick-off was delayed due to the late arrival of Qarabag’s team bus, Radu Dragusin’s night lasted only seven minutes when he received a red card.
It failed to significantly knock Ange Postecoglou’s team 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.
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Qarabag did regularly threaten and Tural Bayramov fired a spot-kick over after Sarr’s strike, which all but ended the visitors’ hopes and Dominic Solanke made it back-to-back goals with 22 minutes left to ensure Tottenham earned a third win in a row before Sunday’s trip to Manchester United.
Spurs were back in Europe for the first time in 18 months, but kick-off was delayed due to “severe” local transport issues which meant the Qarabag team bus only arrived minutes before the scheduled 8pm start.
When play did finally start, Tottenham faced early problems when Dragusin was dismissed. The defender let the ball run across him and was dispossessed near the halfway by Juninho before he cynically pulled back the Qarabag forward to leave referee Willy Delajod with no choice but to send him off.
Teenage midfielder Lucas Bergvall was the unfortunate Tottenham player to make way for left-back Destiny Udogie but he had barely reached his seat by the time the hosts went ahead.
Sarr initiated the pressure on Qarabag’s back four before Solanke won possession from Julio Romao and played in Johnson, who provided a calm finish into the bottom corner.