Bodö/Glimt was the first club from Norway to achieve the semi -finals of a European competition against Lazio Rome.
In the days before the biggest game in the club stories of the small club FK Bodö/Glimt, the coach Kjetil Knudsen gave some interviews. “It’s big”said Knudsen once. “We will probably remember it when we are old.”
Wrong, a few days later you can say that with some certainty, Knudsen, 56, has not been in the club since 2017, with his words. You will not forget this European Cup season in Bodö, a city with a good 50,000 inhabitants and north of the Arctic Circle. Who knows where to go?
First of all, the path of Bodö/Glimt leads to the semi -finals of the Europa League. This had never been done before a club from Norway in a European competition. It is the preliminary highlight of a football fairy tale.
In the quarter-final secondary in the Europa League, Bodö/Glimt won 3: 2 after penalty shootout at Lazio Rome. Goalkeeper Nikita Haikin, 29, had a decisive part of this, he held two penalty. After the extension, Lazio had led 3-1.
In the second leg, Bodö/Glimt often ran behind
Taty Castellanos (21st minute), Tijjani Noslin (90.+3) and Boulaye Dia (100th) scored the goals for Lazio, which had never appeared dangerously in front of the Norwegian goal in the first leg. A week ago, the night before the first encounter in Bodö fell so much snow that the club was dependent on the many helpers and their snow -soaps to secure the discontinuation. The game was played with minus degrees and on artificial turf.
Bodö/Glim’s media manager Sim Pedersen later said that they had hope in the club that such conditions were “in principle not the best for Italian silk feet”.
The second leg in Rome took place on natural grass, and there was no snow. With these conditions, the Laciali got along quite well, they controlled the ball and opponents and thus also the game. At the break, Bodö/Glimt was lucky that Lazio was only used by his many good chances when Castellanos scored with the hoe.
At Lazio two also meet One -time player
In the second half, the Norwegians became stronger, at least a little. Sometimes they now combined, as they had done Piraeus in the first leg and in the rounds against clubs such as FC Porto, Besiktas or Olympiacos. But they didn’t score a goal. Again only Lazio cheered, this time after a corner that Joker Noslin promoted over the line from a short distance.
So the game went into the extension, in which Lazio Rome was allowed to cheer again: a flank from the left side, too, headed into the goal.
Helmersen curious joker use
At that moment Lazio Rome was in the semi -finals, but the third goal of the Italians was not yet the end of a game that could hardly be more exciting. In the 109th minute one had his big appearance, who had previously only been a spectator: Bodö/Glimts Andreas Helmersen, 27, had followed large parts of the game from the replacement bench. It was only in the 75th minute that trainer joined him and the plan opened.
After a flank, Helmersen appeared in the penalty area and headed into the corner at the bottom left. It was the goal that Bodö/Glimt still saved into the penalty shootout. Helmersen was not one of the shooters there, he had seen yellow-red in the added time of the extension.
When Bodö/Glims goalkeeper Haikin first tried to try the LouM Tchaouna and at the very end that of Castellanos, Helmersen was again a spectator. He will be able to get it. In the semi-final first leg against Tottenham (01.05.2025), it will be missing.