As European evenings go, Qarabag’s couldn’t have gone much worse.

The Azerbaijani team faced traffic chaos, a shocking penalty miss and a host of spurned chances as 10-man Tottenham survived countless scares to open their Europa League season with victory.

Despite staying a short distance away in Stratford, Qarabag was affected by rail and road closures and arrived at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 7.45pm – just 15 minutes before the scheduled kick-off – forcing a delayed start until 8.35pm.

UEFA regulations require teams to arrive at least 75 minutes before kick-off, with violators potentially subject to penalties.

The London Overground, the main route to the stadium from other parts of London, was also broken, forcing thousands of supporters to walk as far as Liverpool Street station, two hours away.

They weren’t the only ones caught: TNT experts Peter Crouch and Glenn Hoddle had to walk the final stretch of the journey.

Gurban Gurbanov, who manages the visiting Azerbaijani team, complained that “these things shouldn’t happen” after struggling to reach the stadium from their hotel in Stratford.

When asked why his side arrived so late, Gurbanov said: “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 was no police to escort us.

“It had a big impact on our footballers, but it doesn’t detract from our opponent. They are a good team and we don’t discount that.

“As soon as we arrived, we were told to start in 40 minutes, but we weren’t as ready or prepared as we should have been. These things shouldn’t happen.”

However, the evening could have gone very differently after Spurs defender Radu Dragusin was shown a red card after just eight minutes.

Yet Spurs eventually pulled off a victory with 10 men, with Brennan Johnson, Pape Matar Sarr and Dominic Solanke securing victory – but the visitors will be left wondering how they failed to score on a chaotic night on the pitch.

Their 14 shots – compared to Tottenham’s 10 – included missed sitters and a terribly skied penalty as they failed to take advantage of sloppy Tottenham defending.

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou blamed his team’s sloppy start on the delayed kick-off.

“It just wasn’t a great start for us,” he said. “We were very passive with our passing. Whether it was because of the postponement of the match or whatever, but it is no excuse.

“So a 35-minute delay, delays the warm-ups, delays all kinds of things, but you just have to deal with it and we have to deal with it better than what we did tonight.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a bit and unfortunately Radu (Dragusin) paid the ultimate price for that. But as a team we just didn’t start the game the way we wanted to and the way we needed to. challenging for us.

“The response was absolutely great, but disappointed that we had to be in that position.”

Spurs boss Postecoglou was left with some late worries after Son Heung-min limped off in the 71st minute and Archie Gray appeared to be in pain late on.

Johnson was also withdrawn at half-time after continuing his rich run of form, but the Australian played down concerns over the Wales international’s fitness.

“I haven’t spoken to him yet. He said he felt a bit tired, but I haven’t spoken to him or the medical team yet,” Postecoglou said of Son.

“Yes, Brennan is doing well. It was just tactical. I thought we would need Deki Kulusevski because the way the game is going, Deki is a kind of hybrid midfielder and he can also break out on the right wing. It was just a tactical transfer, but Brennan is doing well.”