BODO, Norway (AP) — The Champions League’s Cinderella club Bodø/Glimt wrote another chapter Wednesday in its fairytale run through the competition.
The homely Norwegian club won 3-0 against Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of a round-of-16 clash at its tiny Aspmyra Stadium packed with 7,971 fans.
Sporting, the champion of Portugal that once nurtured future superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Luís Figo, became the latest favored opponent to travel far north and struggle inside the Arctic Circle this year.
Manchester City and Inter Milan were each beaten 3-1 on Bodø/Glimt’s artificial turf field 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 offseason in Norway. The country’s domestic league does not start until this weekend.
Bodø/Glimt led 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 Blomberg added a second in first-half stoppage time, sliding in a low shot after the ball bounced through to him.
Center forward Kasper Høgh added a third in the 71st being strong in the goalmouth to connect with Jens Petter Hauge’s hard-driven low cross. It was Høgh’s fifth goal in the five-win streak.
World Cup callups?
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 soon going to its first World Cup in a generation.
Nine of the 11 starters Wednesday are Norwegian and three — Hauge, captain Patrick Berg and Fredrik André Bjørkan — are playing for their hometown team that never won a Norwegian league title until 2020.
Høgh, also 25, has not been picked for Denmark, which is in a World Cup qualifying playoffs bracket this month.
Quarterfinal outliers
The team from the Norwegian Sea fishing town would be the most unlikely Champions League quarterfinalist of recent years. APOEL from Cyprus reached the last eight in 2012 and was beaten by Real Madrid.
The winner after the return game in Lisbon next Tuesday will advance to play either Arsenal or Bayer Leverkusen who drew 1-1 Wednesday in the first leg in Germany.
The entire population of Bodø, just 55,000 people, could all fit inside Arsenal’s stadium.
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