Qarabag boss fumes ‘these things shouldn’t happen’ as Tottenham’s Europa League opponents suffer in pre-match chaos before 3-0 defeat

Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov was furious at the pre-match chaos before his side’s Europa League opener against Tottenham was postponed by 30 minutes.

The visitors from Azerbaijan only arrived 15 minutes before the original 8pm kick-off as traffic caused travel nightmares across north London affecting those traveling to the match.

A greatly reduced warm-up time did not give Qarabag the best preparation for what was one of the biggest games in the club’s history, which was full of flashpoints for 90 minutes.

Spurs got off to a torrid start as centre-back Radu Dragusin was sent off after just seven minutes of action, leaving the home side down to ten men and giving Qarabag a huge opportunity to pull off an upset.

However, Ange Postecoglou’s side rallied and scored a breakaway opener as Brennan Johnson scored his third goal in as many games and a returning Pape Sarr added another.

Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov was furious at the pre-match chaos ahead of his side’s Europa League defeat to Spurs

Tottenham recorded a dominant 3-0 win over Qarabag in their first Europa League match

Qarabag’s players missed several scoring opportunities against Tottenham on Thursday

Qarabag then squandered a huge opportunity as Toral Bayramov smashed his penalty against the crossbar and Brazilian striker Juninho also rattled the woodwork as Spurs began to rock.

Dominic Solanke rounded off the clean sheet with a tap-in and Qarabag boss Gurbanov credited Tottenham for better football, but insisted such travel delays ‘should not happen’.

‘Imagine being stuck in traffic for more than two and a half hours. I can’t just make excuses for this, it shouldn’t have happened and there were no police to escort us,” the Qarabag manager complained.

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 anything away from our opponent. It’s a good team and we don’t discount that.

“As soon as we arrived, we were told to start in forty minutes, but we weren’t as ready or prepared as we should have been. These things should not happen,” he added.

The 52-year-old will hope his side can make a marked improvement in their next European outing against Malmö.

Meanwhile, Spurs look to follow up their winning streak when they travel to play Man United on Sunday.