Beating Sporting Lisbon, Cinderella club Bodo/Glimt is having a ball

BODO, Norway — The Champions League's Cinderella club Bodo/Glimt on Wednesday wrote another chapter in its fairytale run through Europe's elite club competition.

The small Norwegian side won 3-0 against Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie at its tiny Aspmyra Stadion packed with 7,971 fans.

Sporting, the champion of Portugal that once nurtured stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo, became the latest giant to travel to the continent's far north and struggle inside the Arctic Circle.

Manchester City and Inter Milan were each beaten 3-1 on Bodo/Glimt's artificial turf since coach Kjetil Knutsen's team began the year looking sure to fall short of reaching the knockout rounds.

It is now a remarkable five straight wins for the lowest-seeded team left in the Champions League — all during the Norwegian offseason. The country's domestic league does not start until this weekend.

Bodo/Glimt took the lead in the 32nd minute when Sondre Brunstad Fet scored with a penalty kick, deceiving Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva, who dived right as the ball went low to his left.

Ole Didrik Blomberg added a second in first-half stoppage time, sliding in a low shot after the ball bounced through to him.

Center forward Kasper Hogh added the side's third in the 71st, showing strength in the goalmouth to connect with Jens Petter Hauge's hard-driven low cross. It was Hogh's fifth goal in the five-win streak.

World Cup call-ups?

None of the goalscorers has even played for their national team. Fet at age 29 and the 25-year-old Blomberg are yet to be selected for Norway, which is about to embark on its first World Cup campaign in a generation.

Nine of the 11 starters Wednesday are Norwegian and three — Hauge, captain Patrick Berg and Fredrik Andre Bjorkan — are playing for their hometown team, which had never won a Norwegian league title until 2020.

Hogh, also 25, has not been picked for Denmark, which is set to take part in the European World Cup qualifying playoffs later this month.

The soccer world may have been surprised by another giant-killing performance, but for coach Knutsen, its big win on Wednesday was just another step in the team's amazing Champions League journey.

Asked if the result would send shock waves through European soccer, Knutsen was his usual sanguine self, never letting an individual result affect how he sees the progress his club is making.

"I think we're on a great journey now, and I don't think we should reflect too much on that — I think we should evaluate the game, what was good, what was less good, and then we should work on it," he told reporters.

"That's really what we've done in good and bad periods.

"It's easy to be satisfied when you get to where we are now, and that's not a trap we should fall into," he added.

On Thursday morning, he and his staff will have sat down in their offices underneath the grandstand at the Aspmyra Stadion to plan the team's approach to the return leg in Lisbon next Tuesday, with a place in the Champions League quarterfinals up for grabs.

"It's so complex, but we have to be just as humble and hungry for what's to come," Knutsen said.

Agencies