Tottenham 3 Qarabag 0: Dominic Solanke spares Radu Dragusin’s blushes after bonkers red card in Europa League clash
RADU DRAGUSIN’S early red card was so sloppy fans may have suspected he wanted to beat the traffic.
But it proved a minor bump in the road as ten-man Tottenham motored to victory on their return to Europe in this heavily-delayed Europa League opener.
Travel chaos involving the trains and major roads meant Qarabag did not arrive from their Stratford hotel until 7.45pm.
It pushed the tie’s kick-off off back until 8.35pm – 35 minutes later than planned.
The hold-up seemed to affect Dragusin’s concentration as he was caught in possession by Juninho and then hauled down the Brazilian, earning a seventh-minute sending-off.
Spurs shrugged off the setback though as Brennan Johnson scored for the third match running just five minutes later.
Pape Matar Sarr doubled the lead soon after the break, shortly before Tural Bayramov’s woeful spot-kick hit the bar from the visitors, and then Dominic Solane made it three.
Qarabag were staying just six-and-a-half miles away in Stratford yet the issues on the road and train lines meant they were late and had to have a police escort for their final mile.
Uefa regulations stipulate that both teams need to be at the ground 75 minutes before kick-off so a warning is set to come the Azerbaijani champions’ way.
The wait affected their hosts more though as Dragusin allowed a routine Micky van de Ven pass run across his body, allowing Juninho to steal it off him.
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Qarabag’s jet-heeled forward then raced away and Dragusin could have taken his chances given how early it was in the game.
But instead the Romanian brought Juninho down and was rightly shown his marching orders – earning Spurs’ earliest Euro dismissal.
Yet Spurs had the lead on 12 minutes after their electric press won the ball back, allowing Solanke to slip in Johnson.
The Welshman’s finish was as convincing as the two others he produced against Coventry and Brentford in the last eight days.
Qarabag’s man advantage started to tell as the half wore on and Spurs had a fortunate escape when Juninho somehow fired a sitter wide from eight yards.
Half-time came at the right time and eight minutes after it, Sarr volleyed home a second after Qarabag failed to clear an inswinging corner from interval sub Dejan Kulusevski.
The visitors had a golden chance to get back into the game when Yves Bissouma was adjudged to have felled Elvin Jafarguliyev in the box, but Bayramov ballooned the spot-kick.
Qarabag squandered a number of other good chances, with Juninho hitting the post and Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario making a number of top stops.
And they paid for it as Solanke was right on time in this delayed encounter to turn home a rebound after Son Heung-min’s shot was spilled.
One concern for Spurs was captain Son Heung-min coming off with some discomfort after unleashing the shot that was parried into Solanke’s path for the third goal.