Kick-off delayed as Tottenham begin Europa League at home to Qarabag – follow live

The match will start at 8:35pm, it has been confirmed.

Qarabag have arrived and will be allowed to warm up before we begin.

The visitors had to get off their team bus and walk to the stadium due to the traffic.

With 15 minutes to the ‘old’ 8pm kick-off, there are barely any Tottenham fans in the stadium. They could be taking shelter inside the ground, of course.

But visitors Qarabag were delayed by the severe travel disruption in London tonight. However, Qarabag have now arrived and we’ll hopefully have an update soon.

After Ange Postecoglou defended his claim of “always winning things” in a second year at a club, the Tottenham boss may have winced after seeing his team draw Manchester City in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

The Europa League represents a strong chance for Tottenham to win their first piece of silverware since 2008.

Tottenham playmaker James Maddison hopes his goal against Brentford “shuts up a few people”, but reiterated it is all about the team after Saturday’s 3-1 victory.

Maddison crowned a superb display with a fine chipped effort in the 85th minute to clinch the points after first-half efforts by Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s 22-second opener.

The 27-year-old Maddison started the campaign with back-to-back assists but faced criticism following last weekend’s defeat to Arsenal and responded with his first goal since March.

Kick-off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been delayed due to “severe travel disruption”.

Trains have been impacted by poor weather in the capital.

Tonight’s visitors Qarabag have been unable to arrive at the stadium ahead of kick-off.

Tottenham captain Son Heung-min has expressed his “love” for team-mate Rodrigo Bentancur, despite the Uruguay midfielder making an alleged racist remark about the South Korean over the summer.

The former Juventus player was charged last Thursday with an alleged misconduct breach by the Football Association in relation to a media interview.

In the clip, which emerged in June, the host of a Canal 10 show asked Bentancur to show the shirt of a Spurs player, with the 27-year-old allegedly replying: “Sonny’s? It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”

While an apology from Bentancur was swiftly forthcoming, due to this being an “aggravated breach”, if an independent regulatory commission panel upholds the FA charge, he could be suspended for six to 12 domestic matches.

Son Heung-min on fixture schedule:

“You don’t want to see players struggling with injuries. No one wants to see it. A lot of games, a lot of travelling. We’ve got to look after ourselves, which sometimes is very hard.

“Mentally, physically, you’re not ready. Then going on to the pitch and then the risk of injury is massive. We’re not robots. Don’t get me wrong, we love playing football. That’s clear.

“It’s about adding more games. City played Sunday and Tuesday and it wasn’t even flexible. It could be moved probably to play Wednesday instead of Tuesday. It’s not flexible. That’s what we’re talking about.

“It’s normal that everyone is at high risk of injury. It’s not fair. Rodri said the right things. We play 50, 60 games and not more than 70 games. When the fixtures come, the players have to play. There’s a lot going on.”

Ange Postecoglou goes strong! There are starts for Son Heung-min and Micky van de Venn, as well as appearances for Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall. Exciting team? It’s six changes from the Brentford game but the same front three.

Spurs XI: Vicario; Gray, Dragusin, Van de Ven, Davies; Bissouma, Sarr, Bergvall; Johnson, Solanke, Son

Qarabag FK: Kochalski, Matheus Silva, Mustafazade, Bayramov, Badavi Huseynov, Cafarquliyev, Benzia, Patrick Andrade, Romao, Zoubir, Juninho

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou and captain Son Heung-min have both insisted the growing football schedule must be addressed.

Spurs begin their Europa League campaign on Thursday at home to Qarabag and the initial phase of the competition has been extended to eight games instead of six, which is also the same for the Champions League.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri suggested last week that players could strike over the increasing fixture congestion before days later he suffered a serious knee injury.

“They may take things into their own hands. They’re the ones most affected to be honest, so you would understand if they started to think as a collective, how much are we going to have to continually not have a say in?” Postecoglou explained.

Oct 3: vs Ferencvaros (A)

Jan 23: vs Hoffenheim (A)