Bodo Glimt, the little Norwegian club who invited himself to the Banquet of the Great Bigs of the Europa League

In the last square of this 2025 edition of the Europa League, there are known heads. Manchester United, former glory of English and continental football, winner in 2017 and holder of three Champions Leagues. Tottenham, who has already raised the little European Cup (1972, 1984). The Athletic Bilbao, unhappy finalist twice, in 1977 and 2012. And then there is… Bodo Glimt.

Currently second in the Eliteerian ranking, the first Norwegian division, the team moves to the lawn of the Spurs, Thursday 1^is May, at 9 p.m., to compete in the first act of their double confrontation, with a room in line in the final of the Europa League, on May 21, in Bilbao.

Reaching this stage of the competition is already historic for this club in the borders of the Cercle Polaire, established in a city of around 50,000 inhabitants. But that we are not mistaken, if finding the “yellow horde”-its nickname-in the semi-finals of a European cup is unprecedented, it is nevertheless no less this season her fifth continental campaign in a row.

Better still, the quadruple national champion (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024), winner of two Cups in Norway (1975, 1993), can even boast of having hung on its hunting board some of the largest foreign stables. During this edition, FC Porto, in the league phase (3-2), or Lazio Rome, in the quarterfinals (2-0 on the outward journey, 3-1 on the return, 3-2 TAB), paid the price.

“Everything was so much smaller”

Going from a team that chained relegation (2005, 2009, 2016) and promotion (2007, 2013, 2017) in the Norwegian championship to a training firmly installed in European competitions since 2020 has been a “Real obstacle course”explained, at the start of the season, Ulrik Saltnes. The midfielder, who has 389 selections under the colors of the Yellow Horde, joined the workforce in 2012, when the Eliteerian still seemed far away. “It’s almost difficult to imagine. Everything was so much smaller. There were so much fewer people and the level was completely different ”recalls the player. The arrival on the Kjetil Knutsen bench, in 2018, did a lot of good to the group, to the point that Bodo Glimt has become a model in Scandinavia.

The most beautiful shot of the training dates back to October 21, 2021. So engaged in the Europa league conference, the club welcomes AS Rome by José Mourinho as part of the third day of the group phase. The match takes place at Aspmyra Stadion, an 8,200 -seat setting, often covered in snow and whose land is synthetic. Faced with this opponent who then points to the 264^e Place of the UEFA ranking, the European football body, “The Special One” decides to run its workforce in large widths. Fatal error: the Giallorossi are tangled (6-1). A debacle that illustrates the fact that, at home, the locals shine. Moreover, out of their last 37 home games in the European Cup, they won 30.

Angel Postcoglou, the Tottenham coach, knows that it is necessary to be wary of the team made up of more than 80 % of Norwegian elements. And for good reason: in 2022, when he was on the bench of Celtic Glasgow, the Australian saw his troops being eliminated in accession dams in the final phases of the Europa League Conference by Bodo Glimt (1-3 on the outward journey; 2-0 on return).

But, Thursday evening, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Bodo Glimt players will have a lot to face the Londoners, because they will have to deal without several of their key men, injured or suspended, including their captain, Patrick Berg, the Middle Hakon Evjen or the attacker Andreas Helmersen, who had scored the saving goal against Lazio. In question? An administrative blunder. The club was not fully aware of the UEFA regulation and wrongly thought that all yellow cards would be erased after the quarter -finals.

Enough to darken the atmosphere in the locker room. “They are very worried about the first game”argued Jonas Bergh-Johnsen, sports journalist of the Scandinavian platform Viaplay, in the podcast “An Echo of Glory”. “I think they said to themselves that a 2-0, 3-1 defeat would be acceptable before returning to Bodo, but now they fear that it is worse. »»