As European nights go, Qarabag’s could not have turned out much worse.
The team from Azerbaijan suffered traffic chaos, a shocking penalty miss and a host of spurned chances as 10-man Tottenham survived countless scares to open their Europa League campaign with victory.
Despite staying a short distance away in Stratford, Qarabag were affected by rail and road closures, and arrived at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 19:45 – just 15 minutes before the planned kick-off – forcing a delayed start until 20:35.
Uefa regulations ask for teams to arrive at least 75 minutes prior to kick-off, with offenders facing possible punishment.
The London Overground, which is the primary route to the stadium from other parts of London, was also down, forcing thousands of supporters to walk from as far as Liverpool Street station, two hours away.
They weren’t the only ones caught out, with TNT pundits Peter Crouch and Glenn Hoddle having to walk the final bit of the journey.
Gurban Gurbanov, who manages the visiting Azeri side, complained “these things shouldn’t happen” after struggling to reach the stadium from their hotel in Stratford.
When asked why his side arrived so late, Gurbanov said: “Imagine being caught in traffic for more than two and a half hours. I cannot just make excuses for this; it shouldn’t have happened and there were no police to escort us.
“It had a big impact on our footballers, but it doesn’t take away from our opponent. They are a good team and we don’t turn a blind eye to that.
“As soon as we arrived, we were told to start in 40 minutes and we were not as ready or prepared as we should have been. These things shouldn’t happen.”
The evening could have been very different, though, after Spurs defender Radu Dragusin received a red card just eight minutes in.
Still, Spurs ultimately rallied to earn a win with 10 men as Brennan Johnson, Pape Matar Sarr and Dominic Solanke secured victory – but the visitors will be wondering how they didn’t score on a chaotic night on the pitch.
Their 14 shots – compared to Tottenham’s 10 – included missed sitters and a horribly skied penalty as they were unable to take advantage of some sloppy Tottenham defending.
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou blamed his side’s sloppy start on the delayed kick-off.
“It was just not a great start for us,” he said. “We were really passive with our passing. Whether it was the delay to the game or whatever, but it’s no excuse.
“So having a 35-minute delay, delays warm-ups, delays all sorts of things but you’ve just got to deal with it and we’ve got to deal with it better than what we did tonight.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot and unfortunately Radu [Dragusin] paid the ultimate price for it. But as a team, we just didn’t start the game in the way we wanted to and the way we needed to and made the game challenging for us.
“The response was great, absolutely, but disappointed we had to be in that position.”
Spurs boss Postecoglou was left with some late concerns after Son Heung-min limped off in the 71st minute, and Archie Gray appeared to be in pain late on.
Johnson was also withdrawn at half-time after he continued his rich vein of form, but the Australian played down concerns about the Wales international’s fitness.
“I haven’t spoke to him. He said he felt a bit tired, but I haven’t spoken to him or the medical team yet,” Postecoglou said of Son.
“Yeah Brennan’s fine. It was just tactical. I thought we would need Deki Kulusevski because the way the game is going, Deki is a like a hybrid midfielder and can also break out on that right wing. It was just a tactical switch, but Brennan is fine.”
