FK Bodö/Glimt, a club from a town of 50,000 inhabitants in the far north, has written a piece of Norwegian football history. Now they face Tottenham.
18.04.2025, 10:19
18.04.2025, 10:57
SDA
Shortly before midnight, there was no stopping the crowd at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. When a certain Nikita Haikin saved Lazio Roma's second penalty in the goal of Bodö/Glimt, the Norwegian football miracle was perfect. The small club north of the Arctic Circle became the first football team from the winter sports nation to reach a European semi-final.
Wearing their bright yellow shirts, the players leapt across the pitch in exuberance after the 3:2 victory on penalties. Memorable photos were taken for eternity in front of the small crowd of fans. "A great piece of Norwegian football history. The European teams are dropping like flies, and now only the imagination sets the limits," wrote the Norwegian newspaper "Aftenposten".
Bodö's home strength is also known in Switzerland
Bodö/Glimt will now face Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League semi-final, having beaten Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday. And the English team will have to dress warmly. The game will be played on artificial turf due to the cold. Before the first leg against the Romans, it had snowed so much that the pitch could only be cleared with a lot of helpers.
Accordingly, the Aspmyra Stadium with its 8270 seats is a huge advantage. 30 of the last 37 European Cup matches were won there. Previous European Cup winners such as FC Porto and AS Roma, as well as two Swiss clubs, have experienced this before Lazio. Zurich (Europa League) returned from Norway in 2022 with no points, as did Lugano (Conference League) a year later.
"Then we became an incredible team"
In Rome, however, pure willpower was required. With the score at 0:3 in extra time, the end seemed sealed, but Andreas Helmersen saved the team in the penalty shoot-out. There, Haikin became the great hero. The 29-year-old was born in Israel, moved to Russia at a young age and then lived in England as a teenager. He already holds three different passports and could soon become a Norwegian citizen. He is in a relationship with a Norwegian woman.
"This team is built from players who weren't that good until a certain point, and then we became an incredibly good team," said coach Kjetil Knutsen, who has been coach in Bodö since 2018 and has led the club to its first four championship titles in the past five years. "It's so damn great for Glimt and Norwegian football. If we can do it, others can do it too."
