Tottenham players were late arriving to their own stadium due to traffic trouble (Image: Getty)
‘s clash with Qarabag has been pushed back from its original 8pm (BST) kick-off slot. Spurs players were late arriving to their home stadium due to travel chaos in north London.
The club took to social media hours before kick-off to warn supporters about a partial closure of the A10, and again shortly afterwards to notify them of suspended London Overground services to White Hart Lane.
Both sets of players are also believed to have been caught up in the disruption, leading Spurs to issue an just after 7.15pm. It read: “Kick off for tonight’s fixture has been delayed due to severe travel disruption. Further information to follow.”
The Lilywhites named a strong line-up for their European opener, with first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario starting between the sticks and Son Heung-min captaining the side.
Manager felt passionately enough about making a positive start to his continental campaign to name fellow first-team regulars and Micky van de Ven in his starting XI.
A selection of youngsters were also given the nod – presumably with one eye on Sunday’s clash with at Old Trafford – including Archie Gray at right-back, Pape Sarr in midfield and Lucas Bergvall alongside him.
Ange Postecoglou named a strong side for Tottenham’s clash with Qarabag (Image: Getty)
Spurs had no European football to contend with last season after finishing eighth in 2022/23. Though the Europa League will stretch his squad to its limits, Postecoglou said during his pre-Qarabag press conference that he and his players were excited to be in the mix again.
“I am really pleased to be back there and excited to be back in it,” he stated. “I spoke about it last year, that it was a real gap in our calendar and didn’t help us at certain times of the year not having regular football, that challenge of playing different types of opposition and exposing our whole squad to some meaningful game-time.
“And the worst thing was sitting around watching other teams play in it. It didn’t sit right with me so being back in a European competition is important.”
Postecoglou was not as downbeat as other managers when discussing the new European format introduced by UEFA this season.
“All games will be meaningful because all teams will have something to play for,” he added. “It’s not that standard home and away, you will play eight different teams, eight different styles of football, so it’s an interesting challenge.”