Three minutes was all it took
Gonzalo Crettaz lasted 180 seconds. The N.E.C. goalkeeper was sent off inside the opening three minutes in Bodo on Tuesday night, and from that moment the second leg of this Champions League play-off stopped being a contest. Bodo/Glimt won 3-0 and went through 6-1 on aggregate.
The hosts did not rush. With a man advantage and a three-goal cushion from the first leg, they built patiently, worked the ball wide and waited for the gaps to open. Fredrik Andre Bjorkan opened the scoring after Sondre Auklend rolled a cutback into his path.
Auklend added the second himself shortly before half-time. A Deveron Fonville own goal completed the scoring, and the closing half-hour played out as a formality.
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A second straight season at Europe’s top table
This is no longer new ground for Bodo/Glimt. They reached the league phase last season too, and the numbers behind the run are getting hard to ignore. They have scored two or more goals in 11 of their last 12 matches in UEFA competition.
For a club from a town of roughly 50,000 people sitting north of the Arctic Circle, that record reads like a misprint. It is not. Bodo/Glimt have spent the last five years turning a modest budget and an artificial pitch into one of the more dependable European sides outside the traditional powers.
They now join Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munchen, Real Madrid and the rest of the 32-team field.
Sabah and LASK made it a night of comebacks
Bodo/Glimt were the straightforward story on an evening that produced two much messier ones. LASK overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit against Celtic, winning 5-1 after extra time to take the tie 5-4. Sabah beat Hapoel Beer-Sheva 5-2 after extra time in Baku, becoming only the second Azerbaijani club ever to reach the competition proper.
Four ties remain. AEK Athens face Levski Sofia, Viking meet GNK Dinamo, Celje play Slovan Bratislava and Lyon host Fenerbahce, all kicking off at 21:00 CET on Wednesday. The league phase draw follows in Monaco on Thursday at 18:00 CET, with the opening round of fixtures set for 8-10 September.
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