Ange Postecoglou had spoken about how Tottenham had felt the absence from European competition last season – a “real gap in our calendar”, as the coach put it. And what did waiting another 35 minutes mean?

It was a night of traffic chaos around White Hart Lane, with intercity trains grounded, roads blocked and kick-off delayed. It set the tone for a wild draw against Qarabag, Spurs’ opener in the Europa League, with a red card for their centre-back Radu Dragusin inside seven minutes and countless close cuts in front of goal. How did they manage to keep a clean sheet? Guglielmo Vicario was instrumental in this.

At the other end, Spurs’ shots counted and when Dominic Solanke made it 3-0 in the 68th minute, they were able to claim victory. This is not a sentence that is consistent with much of what has come before. However, Brennan Johnson scored three goals in three games with the opening goal and Pape Sarr scored the second, allowing the club’s fans to enjoy an entertaining event. It will be a long road to the final in Bilbao. The Spurs are up and running.

The Qarabag bus had run into heavy traffic after driving away from the team hotel in Stratford – just 12 miles away, with Baku barely behind. The Azerbaijani champions only arrived at the stadium at 7:35 p.m., which was far from ideal for them. Or Spurs.

There were early mistakes on both sides, huge ones, starting with Dragusin’s dismissal after he inexplicably allowed the ball to run away from him as the last man and Juninho applied pressure. Dragusin got into trouble when he was robbed by the Qarabag striker, who threatened to run away from the goal. When Dragusin pulled Juninho’s pants, referee Willy Delajod knew what he had to do.

Spurs were undaunted. Postecoglou brought in Destiny Udogie at left-back to reform the back four, albeit one that would never play as such. It’s not Postecoglou’s style.

Archie Gray continued to push up from the right side of defense. Udogie did the same. Ben Davies ran upfield from his new position as left midfielder, the ball at his feet. The top three stayed high. It was unfortunate for Lucas Bergvall that he was withdrawn as a midfielder.

It said a lot about Spurs that after Dragusin’s dismissal and while Udogie was warming up, they played with ten men for what felt like an eternity. They didn’t get the ball out. At some point they would even lose it and play with fire. Spurs would do plenty of that before the break, there were plenty of examples.

Spurs’ breakthrough came immediately after Udogie’s move to Bergvall and it was a personal disaster for Qarabag defensive midfielder Júlio Romão. Spurs pressed aggressively and Ramão converted into Solanke, who advanced before playing Johnson on the overlap. The first goal was low and true.

Johnson might have scored again when he received a long ball from Gray and evaded goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski, who had made a rash attack from his line. Johnson rolled past the empty goal.

But the rest of the first half was a story of Spurs taking risks in defense and getting away, leaving them with men behind against the Qarabag counter-attack and backing themselves to recover.

Toral Bayramov fired a burst under pressure from Udogie after leaking through and no-one could understand how Juninho rolled past Elvin Cafarguliyev’s cross at the far post as he found himself unmarked in front of goal. Patrick Andrade shot wildly when well placed and there was also the moment when Juninho robbed Davies and Spurs needed Vicario to get off his line and make a saving one-on-one tackle.

Postecoglou brought on Dejan Kulusevski for Johnson at half-time and it was the Swedish winger whose inward corner kicked in the second goal. Kochalski came and fluttered under minimal pressure – he was more hindered by one of his own players – and Sarr managed a lovely connection on the volley that was too sweet for Andrade on the line.

Spurs were in no mood to make things easy. Wasn’t it an idea for her to defend herself properly? Yves Bissouma conceded a penalty for a clumsy foul on Cafarguliyev, but Bayramov shot high and Qarabag had a handful of further chances, particularly after forced turnovers. Her conclusion was dismal.

Spurs didn’t feel confident at 2-0, but Solanke, who was denied by Kochalski in the 58th minute, gave them a sigh of relief. Not for the first time, Kochalski faltered and deflected a shot from Son Heung-min straight to Solanke. It was a mission for the striker.

Cafarguliyev saw Vicario deflect his header from a corner and when Juninho finally got the ball into the net, the offside flag obviously had to go up. Qarabag could have played all night and not scored.