Bodo/Glimt Freeze Out Sporting CP as They Cruise to 3–0 Champions League Victory

Bodo/Glimt continue their dream Champions League campaign as they secure a 3–0 home victory against Sporting CP.

Glimt hosted Sporting Lisbon in their first ever Round of 16 Champions League tie in the club’s history. The hosts came into the game in red-hot form, having won their last four games in the competition, beating two European giants Manchester City and Atlético Madrid.

More recently, they produced one of the biggest shocks of the tournament so far when they knocked out Inter Milan 5–2 on aggregate.

Sporting travelled to Norway expecting a result as they too had been in fantastic form, remaining unbeaten in their last 12 games in all competitions. However, the visitors had to cope without Pedro Gonçalves, who has registered 18 goal contributions this season for Sporting.

Geovany Quenda, Maximiliano Araújo, Fotis Ioannidis, Ricardo Mangas and Giorgi Kochorashvili were also unavailable for the Portuguese side.

The first chance came only five minutes into the game, when a corner found its way through several bodies in the box and fell to Luis Suárez on the edge of the six-yard box. A crucial deflection saw his effort fly over the bar.

Jens Hauge thought he had put Glimt in front when Håkon Evjen cut the ball back to him on the edge of the box, placing the Norwegian attacker in a fantastic position. However, Hauge was unable to keep his effort on target, wasting a big opportunity.

Hauge looked like the brightest spark on the pitch, causing problems for the Sporting defence during the opening 25 minutes.

He continued to threaten when he played a clever pass to Evjen, who found himself one-on-one with Rui Silva, but the goalkeeper made himself big and produced a superb save to deny Evjen his third goal of the Champions League campaign.

The home side’s pressure was rewarded in the 28th minute when Bodo/Glimt were awarded a penalty.

Sporting right-back Georgios Vagiannidis pushed Sondre Brunstad Fet in the back as he drove into the box.

Fet stepped up confidently and calmly placed his penalty into the bottom right corner, giving Rui Silva no chance and handing the hosts a deserved lead.

Bodo/Glimt doubled their advantage just before half-time.

Jens Hauge delivered a clever ball over the top of the Sporting defence which was met by Ole Blomberg, who struck the ball brilliantly from a tight angle to beat the Sporting goalkeeper and score his ninth goal of the season.

The Norwegian side went into the break 2–0 ahead, with the first half going almost perfectly for the hosts.

Bodo/Glimt continued to apply pressure in the second half and created several chances, although initially they failed to trouble Rui Silva significantly.

Sporting striker Luis Suárez finally registered his first shot on target in the 60th minute, firing from a tight angle, but Nikita Haikin produced a confident save with his feet.

Despite Sporting showing signs of improvement registering five shots in the opening 15 minutes of the second half Bodo/Glimt struck again.

A long diagonal ball found Jens Hauge, who used quick footwork to reach the byline before delivering a cross into the box. Kasper Høgh met the delivery and converted to give the Norwegian side a 3–0 lead.

The goal means both Høgh and Hauge now have eight goal contributions in this Champions League campaign, equalling a record for a player from a Norwegian team.

Second Leg Awaits

As the Glimt fans’ chants echoed around the stadium, referee Ivan Kružliak blew the whistle for full-time.

The two sides will meet again next week at the Estádio José Alvalade for the second leg, where Sporting face a huge challenge if they are to overturn the three-goal deficit.