Qarabag manager fumes over London traffic after Europa League defeat to Tottenham

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Louise Thomas

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The manager of Qarabag was left furious at the traffic in London after his side were forced to endure a two-and-a-half hour delay before their Europa League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs emerged as 3-0 victors to kick start their European campaign in style despite Radu Dragusin’s early sending off against the Azerbaijani champions.

Kick off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was delayed by 35 minutes after the visitors were caught up in wider problems on the roads.

And while not seeking to blame the situation for his side’s defeat, Gurban Gurbanov admitted that their extended journey had made a “big impact”.

“Imagine being caught in traffic for two-and-a-half hours?” Gurbanov fumed. “I don’t want to make excuses, but it shouldn’t have happened because we had to come by ourselves.

“We had no police to escort us and obviously it had a big impact on our footballers, but it doesn’t take anything away from our opponent. They were a good team.”

Qarabag arrived at the stadium at about 7.45pm BST, 15 minutes before the originally scheduled start, with organisers pushing back kick off to 8.35pm.

Goals from Brennan Johnson, Pape Matar Sarr and Dominic Solanke ensured that ten-man Tottenham made an encouraging start to the revamped competition, which will see each participant play eight times in an initial league phase.

After a long journey back to the Caucasus, Qarabag face Sabah in a top-of-the-table clash on Sunday.