Tottenham made a strong return to European competition after a year away by beating Qarabag 3-0 in the restructured Europa League on Thursday, despite facing an early red card.
Defender Radu Dragusin was sent off in the eighth minute for fouling Juninho, stopping him from going in on goal alone. However, the home team scored just four minutes later.
Brennan Johnson scored with an angled shot, marking his third goal in three games. Pape Sarr added to the lead early in the second half with a goal from a corner kick, and Dominic Solanke completed the scoring with a rebound in the 68th minute.
“The red card was not ideal, we started really sloppily but the reaction afterwards was good,” Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou told TNT Sports. “We wanted to press high, even with ten men.”
Johnson also found the net in a 3-1 victory over Brentford in the Premier League and scored a stoppage-time winner in a 2-1 win against second-division Coventry in the English League Cup just three days earlier.
Tural Bayramov missed a key chance to score from the penalty spot when the Azerbaijani team was down 2-0.
Travel issues caused the match to kick off 35 minutes late.
