Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov fumed at pre-match chaos ahead of his side’s Europa League opener against Tottenham was delayed by 30 minutes.
The Azerbaijan visitors only arrived 15 minutes before the original 8pm kick-off as traffic prompted travel nightmares throughout north London that impacted those travelling to the match.
A severely reduced warm-up time didn’t give Qarabag the best preparation for what was one of the biggest matches in the club’s history that was full of flashpoints throughout 90 minutes.
Spurs suffered a torrid start as centre-back Radu Dragusin was sent off after just seven minutes of action, reducing the hosts to 10-men and giving Qarabag a huge chance of causing an upset.
However, Ange Postecoglou’s side rallied to score a breakaway opener as Brennan Johnson bagged his third goal in as many games and a returning Pape Sarr added another.
Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov fumed at pre-match chaos ahead of his side’s Europa League defeat against Spurs
Tottenham secured a dominant 3-0 victory over Qarabag in their first Europa League clash
Qarabag players missed several scoring opportunities against Tottenham on Thursday
Qarabag then spurned a huge opportunity as Toral Bayramov smashed his penalty against the crossbar and Brazilian striker Juninho also rattling the woodwork as Spurs began to rock.
Dominic Solanke wrapped up the clean-sheet win with a tap-in and Qarabag boss Gurbanov credited Tottenham for playing the better football but insisted such travel delays ‘shouldn’t happen’.
‘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 was no police to escort us,’ complained the Qarabag manager.
Dominic Solanke scored Tottenham’s third goal against Qarabag in the European win
‘It [travel chaos] 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,’ he added.
The 52-year-old will be hoping his side can produce a marked improvement in their next European outing against Malmo.
Meanwhile, Spurs are seeking to follow-up their win when they travel to play Man United on Sunday.