Gridlock on the streets of north London created a mood of pre-match chaos. Qarabag were caught up in traffic and did not make it to the stadium until 15 minutes before the scheduled kick-off at 8pm.
The Azeri champions had stayed in a hotel 12 miles away in Stratford, but rail and road closures combined to wreak havoc on all those bound for N17, including thousands of supporters.
TNT Sport pundits Peter Crouch and Glenn Hoddle had to jump out of their vehicle and set out into the pouring rain on foot. ‘We gave up with the car,’ said Crouch. ‘We were head down and legging it through.’ Hoddle added: ‘Peter ran, and I limped.’
Qarabag are not the first to be caught out by the notoriously congested streets around Tottenham, whose previous European home fixture was delayed by 10 minutes when both teams arrived late due to bad traffic.
That was against AC Milan in the second leg of a last 16 Champions League tie in March 2023, when Antonio Conte’s Spurs team were unable to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg and crashed out.
Tottenham eased to a comfortable victory over Qarabag, with Dominic Solanke among the scorers
Defender Radun Dragusin was sent off after seven minutes with the score still at 0-0
Brennan Johnson, however, got the ball rolling with his third goal in as many games for Spurs
The Qarabag team bus finally arrived with the help of a police escort along the last mile of the journey. Long-serving head coach Gurban Gurbanov appeared distinctly unimpressed as he disembarked but agreed to prepare as quickly as possible and aim for a kick off at 8.35pm.
In fact, it was two minutes later by the time they got under way and the visitors started brightly as if thrilled to be moving freely once again. Spurs were caught out by their pace and reduced to 10 men within only seven minutes.
Dragusin’s touch was poor as he collected a pass from Micky van de Ven and Juninho pounced with terrific speed off the mark, touching the ball clear and set off in pursuit.
He seemed set to accelerate away towards goal when he became entangled with Dragusin’s desperate efforts to recover and was taken down. French referee Willy Delajod produced a red card without hesitation.
The Romanian trudged off and Postecoglou reshuffled. Off came Lucas Bergvall, the teenage midfielder replaced by left back Destiny Udogie, with Ben Davies moving into the centre alongside Van de Ven.
Postecoglou had made six changes to the team that started the Premier League win against Brentford on Saturday but selected his strongest forward line and it was to his credit that he kept all three of them on after the red card.
Reward for his risk came quickly when Dominic Solanke and Pape Matar Sarr forced an error from Julio Romao and Johnson produced a clinical finish, first time from Solanke’s pass.
Johnson missed a chance to extend the lead before he was replaced at half time. The Wales winger won a race to a pass from Archie Gray and nudged it past Qarabag goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski on the corner of the penalty area.
It was a not simple, it required an instant shot from a difficult position with defenders scrambling back to cover and Johnson rolled his shot wide.
Qarabag, seasoned European campaigners who gave eventual runners-up Bayer Leverkusen a serious scare in the last-16 last season, were susceptible at the back to Tottenham’s pressing but always dangerous on the break especially once they had the numerical edge.
They finished the first half on top without making their chances count. Brazilian striker Juninho wriggled away from Davies only to slide the best of them wide when he ought to have scored.