Brennan Johnson’s resurgence continues as ten-man Tottenham get Europa League campaign off to winning start | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou must have wondered if it would be one of those nights as Tottenham began their Europa League campaign on a winning note.

Firstly, due to issues with London traffic, the match was delayed by 35 minutes because Qarabağ’s team bus arrived late. Soon after kick-off, Spurs found themselves playing with ten men, but ended up running out 3-0 winners.

The visiting Azerbaijani champions exploited Postecoglou’s side’s high line, leaving Radu Drăgușin isolated. The Romanian centre-back had no option but to bring down Juninho, which resulted in a straight red card.

Postecoglou and the Lilywhite faithful in attendance were in disbelief. Drăgușin became the first player to be sent off on his debut in a major UEFA competition for Tottenham, while his seven-minute red card is Spurs’ earliest from the start of a European match.

Lucas Bergvall immediately made way for Destiny Udogie, and no sooner had that happened than Brennan Johnson broke the deadlock. He’s now scored in his last three games for Spurs, with each of these coming in a different competition (League Cup, Premier League, Europa League).

Furthermore, only Son Heung-Min (31) has more goal involvements for Spurs since the start of last season (18). This was also his 50th career strike (13 Lincoln City, 29 Nottingham Forest, 8 Spurs).

It’s a far cry from the recent North London derby, in which Spurs fell to a 1-0 loss against Arsenal, leading to Johnson reportedly deactivating his Instagram account because of criticism in the wake of the defeat.

He would days later score a dramatic late winner for Spurs in their Carabao Cup victory over Championship side Coventry City, but remained muted in his celebrations.

“With Brennan, you know I spoke about it [on Tuesday] that he comes in, works hard at his game and when you’re an attacking player, you’re always kind of getting measured against certain things,” Postecoglou said.

“I said, if he can get through this period and just be positive and play like he can, he can be a significant contributor to us and credit to him. He got a good goal.”

The forward has indeed heeded those words. Johnson struck against Brentford a few days later in Tottenham’s comeback win. Tonight was the Welsh international continuing that mini-resurgence and further re-establishing himself as a crucial part of Postecoglou’s team, or as the Australian tactician stated, significantly contributing.

Despite having a man advantage, it was a reality check for Qarabağ, who could not capitalise and conceded again from only Spurs’ second attempt on target. Pape Sarr doubled Tottenham’s lead, but Qurban Qurbanov’s side were unable to halve the deficit from 12 yards as Toral Bayramov’s spot kick hit the woodwork. That was Qarabağ’s first missed penalty in the Europa League; they had scored their previous six before tonight.

Dominic Solanke capped off another excellent outing by netting a third after the hour mark. Earlier in the game, he created Johnson’s opener, meaning he is the first Spurs player to both score and assist on his debut in major European competition since Darren Bent in September 2007.

This result also means that Spurs have won three of their four matches in all competitions under Postecoglou when receiving a red card, also beating Luton and Nottingham Forest in the Premier League last season (the defeat to Chelsea being the exception).

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