Bodo/Glimt relish 'biggest game ever' against Tottenham, with Arctic minnows still believing in giant killing ahead of Europa League second leg on plastic pitch

Daily Mail​

07-05-2025

The green rectangle of plastic grass glistened with no hint of the demons said to be lurking within and the Bodo/Glimt players fizzed passes about on a surface slick with Arctic drizzle.
Around them, workers were busy adorning the Aspmyra Stadium with the final trimmings for its biggest night, fixing UEFA branding in the appropriate areas and running TV cables around the simple stands.
Beyond that, the stillness of a Norwegian fishing town where day broke at 3am. The calls of the gulls, the rumble of a tractor spreading rubber crumb over an artificial training pitch and the occasional fighter jet tearing through the sky on a training exercise.
Little else stirred in Bodo as Tottenham descended.
The Champions League determines its two finalists amid the trembling passion of the San Siro and Parc des Princes. There will be 80,000 inside Old Trafford willing Manchester United to complete victory over Athletic Bilbao.
Here, the anticipation came with a little Scandinavian understatement but there was nobody pretending it didn't matter. Yellow flags, scarves and shirts were displayed in windows and porches as fans offered their team support.
Spurs may be 3-1 up after the first leg but nobody here has given up hope.
'It's the biggest night and the biggest match I've experienced,' said Jens Petter Hauge, who left Bodo/Glimt for AC Milan in 2020 and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt before returning last year to his hometown club.
'No matter where go or who you meet, in the garage or the mall, everyone is looking forward to it and everyone says they've tried to get tickets and it's impossible. That shows you how much it means.'
Tottenham dominated the first leg until conceding a late goal and will be confidence despite the post-match comments of Bodo right-back Fredrik Sjovold who ridiculed the Premier League team's attempts to press them into mistakes.
Sjovold, 21, claimed they had been 'ræva', meaning 'very bad' in its most polite translation, and that he had played against better in Norwegian football.
Bodo boss Kjetil Knutsen tried to brush it aside, putting it down to 'inexperience' and yet it has become a talking point in Norway, where there is a feeling that Ange Postecoglou's team were nothing special.
And that Bodo/Glimt can still rattle them if they score first in the Aspmyra, where the home record is impressive.
In 10 home ties in this European campaign, which started in July in the Champions League qualifiers, the Norwegian champions have won nine, including victories against established clubs such as Lazio, Olympiacos, Twente, Besiktas and Red Star.
Ange Postecoglou's men have a 3-1 lead heading into the return leg in Norway
Over five years, they have lost only six of 37 home ties, beating Roma 6-1 after knocking out Postecoglou's Celtic.
Their artificial pitch has been blamed and criticised but, on Wednesday, Knutsen said: 'We are a good football team first and foremost. Like most teams, we are better at home than away.
'The grass we have is what we play on. It's due to the climate. And the more you play on it the better you get. At home, over time, we have learned to trust in ourselves. It's a good pitch and good players can easily adapt.
'There's a lot of talk about things we can't do much about, but we will see a good Tottenham team and hopefully a strong Bodo/Glimt team.'