Borussia Dortmund welcomes FK Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. The Norwegians have already ended their league season and are preparing for a tough final push in the premier class on the southern Spanish Costa del Sol.
For the majority of the Norwegian teams, a long break began with the end of the 30th matchday on the last weekend in November. Due to the cold winter, the season in the Norwegian “Eliteserien” starts in March and only lasts until the end of November. While the winter in southern Europe is busy, the Norwegian winter is resting football therefore – but not at FK Bodø/Glimt.
The northwest Norwegians have to play three more times before they can take their well-deserved break: there are still three absolute hits waiting in the Champions League. On Wednesday evening (9 p.m., live in the Sportschau radio report) we go to Borussia in Dortmund, and next year we will host Manchester City. At the end of the three highlight games there is an away trip to Madrid to Atlético.
Historic year for Bodø/Glimt
The game in Dortmund marks the end of a year for Bodø/Glimt that will go down in history. While “Den Gule Horde” (the yellow horde) missed out on winning the championship again by one point, they caused an international sensation: the Europa League only ended in the semi-finals, and in late summer they qualified for the Champions League for the first time thanks to a win against the Austrian representative Sturm Graz in the qualification – and were the first Norwegian club to do so since 2007 (then Rosenborg Trondheim).
The Champions League is an incredible achievement for Norway and us as a club. Four or five of our starting XI players have been here since they were kids. I think there are few players who can say that they can play Champions League with their childhood friends. We are different than the typical club in some ways.
Club president Frode Thomassen in a GiveMeSport interview
In terms of sport, things have been going poorly in the premier class so far: the outsiders have only been able to get two points in the group phase, although Bodø/Glimt were able to keep up in games like against Juventus Turin (2-3 defeat after a 1-0 lead). To qualify for the playoffs, Bodø would have to finish 24th in the group. Currently in 32nd place and given that the rest of the program is anything but easy, this will be difficult.
Preparation for Dortmund in Marbella
In office since January 2018: Coach Kjetil Knutsen (57)
And yet coach Kjetil Knutsen’s team, which is largely made up of Norwegians, seems to have a lot planned for the game in Dortmund. Because the training conditions in the far north are poor due to the weather, the club decided to hold a training camp in Marbella. There the team is preparing for the last game of 2025 in temperatures of almost 20 degrees.
Snow in Bodø before the CL game against Juventus at the end of November
The appearance of the small club on Instagram shows how good the mood is among the guests from Norway. The club posts videos of players trying out flights with a drone camera and having a lot of fun. Another post shows the team playing football tennis on the grass in sunny La Quinta near Marbella. The natural turf on site is intended to help the team prepare for the surface in Dortmund – the club plays on artificial turf in their home Aspmyra Stadium (capacity: 8,000 spectators).
Dortmund meets ex-Frankfurt Hauge
In terms of freshness and focus, Norway’s champions from 2023 and 2024 should be a little ahead of BVB, but Bodø/Glimt still goes into the game as a clear outsider. There are only a few internationally known players in the squad.
Tight ball control: Jens Petter Hauge in Frankfurt
From a German perspective, what stands out is Jens Petter Hauge, who comes from Bodø’s youth and moved to AC Milan, then tried rather unsuccessfully in the Bundesliga at Eintracht Frankfurt. The technically strong offensive man is flourishing again in Norway, is a regular player and contributed 13 points in the league season that has just ended.
Based on the statistics, the most dangerous player is one of the few foreigners in the squad: center forward Kasper Høgh. The former Danish U19 international has scored 17 league goals and prepared six goals – BVB should pay particular attention to him. More important than the football class, however, is the euphoria that the town of 50,000 inhabitants brings with it: around 5,000 fans have been announced for the away game. The appearance in front of the “Yellow Wall” in Dortmund at the end of the season will be (another) absolute highlight for Bodø/Glimt.
We have to be brave and disrupt Dortmund. It’s about showing that we can compete at this highest level. We showed that especially in the home games.
Erik Hoelstad, video analyst from Bodø/Glimt in the club’s own podcast
Our sources:
- Club website FK Bodø-Glimt
- Instagram channel FK Bodø-Glimt
- Schedule and results overview from sportschau.de
Broadcast: WDR.de, FK Bodø-Glimt – Duel against BVB instead of vacation, October 8th, 2025, 3:04 p.m
