Qarabag (Azerbaijan) (Home) 26.09.2024

Perhaps the club enjoyed the fact that the fans who had made it in time would be spending their pounds in the food and drink outlets in the stadium concourses, as the ground didn’t really start to fill until around 8.20, as the trains had started running again, with a sizeable away following present in the North-East corner of the ground.  We saw the Qarabag squad enter the ground and make their way to the dressing rooms at around 7.45, so it was just a question of whether the game would kick off at a reasonable time to allow us to get the last train without leaving early.

The game started 35 minutes late and Spurs didn’t really seem to get ready for the late kick off.  The early part of the match saw both teams turning over possession and conceding free-kicks in attempts to win it back.  One free kick to Spurs near the halfway line was played between Micky van de Ven, Yves Bissouma and Radu Dragusin, with the final pass across to the Romanian, which he allowed to run past him, let Juninho accelerate to take the ball away form him.  In a desperate attempt to stop the Qarabag striker getting through on goal, he pulled him back by his shorts and dragged him down 15 yards outside the Spurs box, but as the last man it was obvious that the referee was going to reach to his back pocket for his red card.  Having been denied the services of Cristian Romero, who was serving a suspension for getting sent off the last time we were in Europe, it was a dismissal after six minutes and 55 seconds that we didn’t need.  On the club website in the article by commentator Rob Daly where he looks at the tactics that might come into play in the game, this was something he raised as Juninho had employed using his pace to press high and score in previous matches.  It was warning that had not been relayed to the team it seems. 

What might have been seen as a straightforward match was now going to prove difficult and Lucas Bergvall was substituted to make way for Destiny Udogie with the Swedish youngster being unfortunate to be the one sacrificed, but Sarr was likely to be able to run all night, as he has an unquenchable attitude for putting in the hard yards, it made sense to keep him on.  Dropping into a 4-3-2 formation, Bissouma was settling to play a responsible role as the one who linked the midfield and the forwards, with the players pressing hard despite being a man down.  Almost immediately after Udogie came on, Pape Matar Sarr sprung forward to press the Qarabag player on the ball, who played it short to Romao.  His loose touch gave Dominic Solanke the opportunity to take the ball off him and hold him off to lay it into Brennan Johnson’s path, who didn’t interrupt his run to side-foot the ball past a defender and wide of the keeper into the far side of the goal to put Tottenham into an unlikely lead.  Ironically, it was us taking the ball high up the pitch that had brought the reward and all three players did well to contribute to the opening goal of the game in the 12th minute.

The visitors made a good move that saw a pass straight through the middle of the defence send Bayramov through with Udogie chasing him, but when he got to the penalty area, he lost his composure and completed an air shot that allowed the ball to run through to Vicario.  After two late challenges, Romao was warned by the referee about what would happen if he continued to commit fouls and the game fell into a pattern of the ball being lost and won back, with Qarabag having a good chance when they found themselves on the attack with a five to three advantage.  Luckily, Destiny did well to hold off the opponent who had the ball on the edge of the D and the danger was averted.  Surprisingly, it was not Romao to be the first player booked, but Jafarguliyev for a late tackle on Archie Gray.

There was a nice example of how hard the team were working when Vic had the ball at his feet and all his close passes were cut off, so he played a left foot pass down the left wing to where Solanke had made a run into space.  The forward was putting in a Harry Kane like display, dropping deep to win or receive the ball and holding it up really well until he could bring other players into the play.  The times he found himself back in the Spurs area defending or heading away corners was so like our record goal-scorers’ attitude to his place in the team.  Johnson was giving the Azeri side problems down the right and a nicely weighted ball over their left back allowed him to chase it to the corner of the penalty area.  Keeper Kochalski ran out, missed the ball and left it at Brennan’s feet, but with a defender close to him, he rushed his effort to try and hook the ball on target and missed by about five feet. 

A dangerous low ball came in from the Qarabag left that bounced off the wet turf and Vicario did very well to push the ball out beyond the edge of the box, avoiding hitting players running into the area.  Five minutes before half time, it should have been 1-1.  Breaking out of defence after Romao had thrown a low block to bring down Solanke and then Bissouma was pushed off the ball, they broke quickly and found space down their left wing.  Jafarguliyev put in a great low cross into the six-yard box for Juninho, but he opened his body too much and when it looked easier to score, he guided the ball a yard wide of the far post.  Spurs had got away with one there !

Every time there was a Qarabag corner in the south-east corner of the ground, a Spurs fan ran down to the front and shouted, “You’ve got tiny feet.  Give my Mum her boots back !”  Maybe he was using the worst insult know to Azerbaijani’s ?  Anyway, it must have worked as they got nothing from the corners and Tottenham saw out the half with only a Patrick Andrade shot that flew three yard wide to worry them.  Well, that and Juninho robbing Davies and being on his way until Guglielmo dashed out of his area and fortunately performed a very well-timed tackle on the forward to stop his progress.  Any slight error in his challenge could have been fatal for Spurs, as it would have been debatable whether there was a covering player to prevent it being a second yellow card.

So, there was plenty to talk about at half-time, but little did we know what was to come !

The first thing to come was Dejan Kulusevski replacing Brennan Johnson, which was a little odd, as the winger had scored Tottenham’s goal, but maybe the thought that Deki could hold the ball up front with a bit more body strength.  And the change paid off seven minutes into the half, as the sub and Archie Gray worked a move that won a corner and Kulusevski hit it into the goalmouth, where Ben Davies was being held and the keeper came for it, but only glanced the ball off his fists to the far post.  There was Pape, who was well-balanced to side-foot a volley at goal that Patrick Andrade on the goal-line could only help on its way in, being unable to sort out his feet.  It was a well controlled volley that Pape was determined to concentrate on getting on target and it paid off and gave Spurs a buffer of two goals, which would be an asset when players tired towards the end.  

Just when you thought it was safe, Qarabag worked a 1-2 inside the left side of the Spurs area and Yves Bissouma stretched to make a tackle and down went Jafarguliyev, seemingly before the Spurs midfielder contacted him.  The referee was well-placed and pointed straight to the spot, turning away Tottenham appeals that it wasn’t a foul.  However, for some reason, the ref booked Bissouma and then took an age to organise the penalty to be taken and it was almost two minutes before Bayramov stepped up to fire the ball high and off the crossbar into the Paxton Road end.  The away support, who had temporarily noisy were suddenly hushed and what could have been a route back into the game had been wasted.  

The game opened up a bit as Tottenham immediately gave the ball away on the edge of the box and Juninho hit an effort that Vicario caught and held on his chest, but then Tottenham broke with Son providing a shooing chance for Solanke, with the Kochalski sticking out a leg to save.  Vic was there again to tip a shot from Bayramov from outside the box over the bar and then had simpler stop when Zoubir headed down a cross from the right wing to the far post.   

As the clock ticked over to 64 minutes, Juninho made an intelligent run in behind Micky to find space on the right side of the box and his drive at the near post hit the woodwork.  After Qarabag had brought on speedy winger Addai, Spurs worked the ball down the left and when it was played back to Ben Davies, his ball over the top down the line picked out P.  M. Sarr’s run into space.  He pulled a pass back to Kulusevski outside the box and he touched it left to Son.  He came a step inside and let go a low shot that the keeper poorly dealt with by pushing it out straight in front of him and Solanke had instinctively spun away from his marker when the shot came in, so was on hand to put the ball into the net from just outside the six yard box and that made it 3-0 in the 68th minute.  It was another example of how Kane-like Dom looks.  Meanwhile, Son had gone down while the goal was being scored and after treatment he looked uncomfortable going off to be replaced by Timo Werner and Rodrigo Bentancur came on for Bissouma.

Ten minutes from the end, Zoubir tried to whip a free-kick from the left into the far top corner, but Vicario batted it away for a corner and when that was cleared, then recycled, a drive from outside the box from Jafarguliev forced the Spurs keeper to fly up to his left to claw away the ball for a corner.  It was worked into a cross to the middle of the penalty area for Juninho to head down wide to the right of Vicario, but it was ruled out for off-side.  The Qarabag striker almost had another chance two minutes later, when a deflected cross from the right looped into the air and he went to meet it with an overhead kick, but completely missed the ball.  When the ball came through to Addai on the penalty spot when Bentancur had missed it, he could only scuff his shot into van de Ven and it trickled through to the keeper.  When the winger was looking to get onto a through ball in added time, Archie Gray did well to track his run and hold him off for Vicario to come and take the ball.

There is no doubt that Qarabag’s player possess technical skills, as they move the ball about well, but their finishing was abysmal luckily for Spurs.  A goal before half-time when Juninho missed a gilt-edge chance could have changed the course of the match, but while the visitors missed their chances, Spurs took theirs.  It was impressive to see a side with ten men pressing hard and attacking.  Can you imagine the Gooners playing like this with eleven, let alone ten ? 

On a night that had a delayed start, a sending off, a missed penalty and a 3-0 win, what more could you ask for ?  Except for the weather to have been better !

Wyart Lane

• Brennan Johnson scored the 50th goal of his career.
• Tottenham have played six home Europa League matches and won all six with a total score of 18-0.