Coach Struggles Amidst Unappealing Tactics vs. Team's Exciting Future in Norway's Final
Bodo/Glimt's Ole Didrik Blomberg celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the UEFA Champions League soccer match between Bodo/Glimt and Sporting CP at Aspmyra Stadium. Fredrik Varfjell/NTB/dpa Bodø/Glimt blamed themselves as much as Sporting's gung-ho attitude for a 5-0 thumping which ended their Champions League hopes after a fairy-tale season for the Norwegians. The team with a plastic pitch from the Arctic Circle had beaten Inter (twice), Atletico Madrid and Manchester City in their maiden Champions League campaign and went to Lisbon on Tuesday 3-0 up from the last 16 first leg.
But the aura that has captured the imagination of European football fans this term disappeared on Wednesday as Sporting first levelled the tie in 90 minutes and scored twice more in extra-time to set up a quarter-final meeting with Arsenal. "We had a game plan, but we did not really manage to stick to it, and it all became a bit in-between. Unfortunately, then we ended up being a worse version of ourselves," Bodø midfielder Patrick Berg told TV2.
"It feels really tough right now. Of course, they played a very good match. But first and foremost, we have to focus on ourselves and evaluate what we could have done better, because there's no doubt that our performance was far below the level we expect.
" Bodø coach Kjetil Knutsen is likely to be linked with some prize jobs across Europe in the coming months given his side's previous heroics. They became the first Norwegian side to reach the semi-finals of a European competition in last season's Europa League and under Knutsen won four Norwegian titles since he took over in 2018. Celtic have been mentioned in the media as a possible landing spot but the 57-year-old first has to process the chastening defeat.
"Sporting went out there and didn't care about anything, while we were thinking about the consequences from the very first touch. That made us passive," he said as he underlined the dangers of going into a second leg with a healthy lead. "I can't really put my finger on why we ended up like that, but there were only brief spells where we managed to put anything together.