The defeat in Portugal concluded Bodo/Glimt's fairytale journey in their first Champions League appearance. Sporting became the fifth team in history to mount a comeback after trailing by three goals in the first leg.
Spanish club Deportivo La Coruna was the first team to achieve this against AC Milan in 2004, followed 13 years later by Barcelona's 6-1 victory over PSG in the round of 16 second leg. Barcelona then became a victim of similar comebacks in the two subsequent years, against AS Roma and Liverpool.
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Inacio (number 25) celebrated after opening the scoring in the match against Bodo/Glimt at Jose Alvalade Stadium, Lisbon, Portugal, on 17/3. *Photo: Reuters*
Trailing 0-3 after the first leg in Norway, Sporting attacked from the start and opened the scoring in the 34th minute when Goncalo Inacio headed in from a Francisco Trincao corner kick.
Bodo/Glimt almost equalized, hitting the crossbar before halftime, before Sporting scored another goal in the 61st minute with Pedro Goncalves finishing from a Luis Suarez cross. The home team leveled the aggregate score when Suarez successfully converted a penalty in the 78th minute, after VAR reviewed a handball by defender Fredrik Bjorkan.
Sporting needed less than two minutes of extra time to score their fourth goal when Maxi Araujo finished successfully. Substitute Rafael Nel added a fifth goal in injury time, concluding the Norwegian representative's fairytale journey and sending the two-time consecutive Portuguese champions into the next round.
In their second quarterfinal appearance, Sporting will face the winner of the tie between English Premier League leaders Arsenal and German representative Bayer Leverkusen.
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Bodo/Glimt players looked dejected at Jose Alvalade Stadium, Lisbon, Portugal, on 17/3. *Photo: Reuters*
Bodo/Glimt was eliminated but left a strong impression this season. Coach Kjetil Knutsen's team defeated European giants Man City and Atletico at the end of the league phase, finishing 23rd in the standings to secure a spot in the play-off round.
In this round, they faced Inter - 20-time Italian champions. Bodo/Glimt caused a shock by winning 3-1 at home in the first leg before then winning 2-1 at San Siro in the second leg, becoming the first Norwegian club in history to overcome a knockout tie in the Champions League.
| Bodo/Glimt, which was still playing in the Norwegian second division in 2017, is located in the northernmost part of Europe to have participated in the Champions League. They hail from the town of Bodo, a 16-hour drive north of Oslo, near the Arctic Circle, with a population of only 55,000 people. Bodo/Glimt was founded in 1916 as FK Glimt, meaning "ray of light" or "flash". In 1948, to avoid confusion with another club named Glimt in the Trondelag region, the team added the city name Bodo to the front, becoming FK Bodo-Glimt. The hyphen (-) easily caused confusion in presentation, making the club name potentially misunderstood as two different teams. Therefore, from the 1980s, the team switched to using a slash (/) for clearer distinction in print. |
Vy Anh
