The green rectangle of plastic grass glistened with no hint of the demons said to be lurking within and the Bodo/Glimt players fizzed passes about on a surface slick with Arctic drizzle.
Around them, workers were busy adorning the Aspmyra Stadium with the final trimmings for its biggest night, fixing UEFA branding in the appropriate areas and running TV cables around the simple stands.
Beyond that, the stillness of a Norwegian fishing town where day broke at 3am, the calls of the gulls, the rumble of a tractor spreading rubber crumb over an artificial training pitch and the occasional fighter jet tearing through the sky on a training exercise.
Little else stirred in Bodo as Tottenham descended. The Champions League determined its two finalists amid the trembling passion of the San Siro and Parc des Princes. There will be 80,000 inside Old Trafford willing Manchester United to beat Athletic Bilbao.
Here, the anticipation came with a little Scandinavian understatement. With yellow flags on display outside buildings, fluttering from lampposts, on display in the windows of shops and porches.
‘It is a historic football match and we want the main role,’ said Bodo/Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen. His team trail 3-1 after the first leg but a late goal in London fuelled hope and they have faith in the Aspmyra with its League Two vibe and capacity of 8,000. ‘We are at home, we have the town behind us,’ Knutsen added.
Spurs are gearing up for their crucial Europa League semi-final second leg against Bodo/Glimt
Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham are taking a 3-1 aggregate lead into the second leg in Norway
Spurs will play at Bodo/Glimt’s Aspmyra Stadium (above), which has an artificial surface
Midfielder Jens Petter Hauge, who joined AC Milan from Bodo in 2020 and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt before returning to his hometown club last year, said: ‘No matter where you go or who you meet, in the garage or the mall, everyone is looking forward to it and everyone says they’ve tried to get tickets and it’s impossible.’
Tottenham dominated last week and were worth their lead, despite disparaging post-match comments from Bodo right-back Fredrik Sjovold who claimed the Premier League team’s attempts to press them into mistakes were ‘ræva’, meaning ‘very bad’ in its most polite translation, and that he had played against better in Norwegian football.
Knutsen brushed it aside, putting it down to Sjovold’s ‘inexperience’ and yet it has become a talking point in Norway, where there is a feeling that Ange Postecoglou’s team were nothing special and are now without James Maddison, ruled out for three months with a knee injury he suffered in the first leg.
Bodo, with key players including captain Patrick Berg back from suspension, believe they are not out of this tie, especially if they score first in the Aspmyra, where the home record is so formidable.
In 10 home ties in this European campaign, which started in July in the Champions League qualifiers, the Norwegian champions have won nine, including victories against established clubs such as Lazio, Olympiacos, Twente, Besiktas and Red Star. Three years ago, they beat Roma 6-1 after knocking out Postecoglou’s Celtic.
The artificial pitch has been criticised, and Knutsen hit back, saying: ‘We are a good football team first and foremost. Like most teams, we are better at home than away. The grass we have is what we play on. It’s due to the climate. And the more you play on it the better you get. At home, over time, we have learned to trust in ourselves. It’s a good pitch and good players can easily adapt.’
The last time Tottenham played on an artificial pitch was in the FA Cup at Tamworth, when they needed extra-time to see off fifth-tier opposition, and Postecoglou opted against using artificial surfaces at the training ground before travelling to Norway, claiming there was little point because they were all different.
Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who didn’t play at Tamworth, said it was probably five years since he played on one, but nobody appeared too perturbed as they trained in Bodo last night.
Postecoglou vowed that his side are fazed by the pitch, atmosphere or conditions in Norway
The Spurs boss will be without James Maddison, who is ruled out for the rest of the season
‘It’s obviously different,’ said Postecoglou. ‘Whether it’s the pitch, the atmosphere, the conditions, there’s always challenges to overcome it, and we’ll do that.’
Spurs can take comfort from the victory at Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter final and the knowledge they are inching closer to a first major trophy since 2008, and a ticket to rejoin Europe’s elite.
And Postecoglou was undeterred by former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, now FIFA’s chief of global football development, who claimed the Europa League winners should not go into the Champions League as they have for the last 10 years.
‘Spurs does crazy things to people,’ scoffed Postecoglou.
‘Put that club into any sentence and invariably they all come out and try to diminish us as much as they can. Why wasn’t it an issue before but it is now?
‘Last year, fifth didn’t get you into the Champions League and now it does. What does that mean? There are competition rules and it’s not the first year. I’ve got great respect for Arsene, he’s one of the legends of the game but Spurs does crazy things to people, I love it.’
Predicted Spurs XI (4-3-3): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bissouma, Bentancur, Kulusevski; Johnson, Solanke, Richarlison
