STOCKHOLM, Sweden 鈥 The football world may have been surprised by another giant-killing performance by Arctic minnows Bodo/Glimt, but for coach Kjetil Knutsen, their 3-0 thrashing of Sporting on Wednesday was just another step in their amazing Champions League journey.
The win extended their run of victories in the competition to five, with Sporting added to a list of defeated opponents that includes Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan twice.
Asked if the result would send shockwaves through European football, Knutsen was his usual sanguine self, never letting an individual result affect how he sees the progress his club is making.
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e on a great journey now, and I don鈥檛 think we should reflect too much on that right now 鈥 I think we should evaluate the game, what was good, what was less good, and then we should work on it,鈥 he told reporters.
It has become a familiar tale 鈥 a bigger club brings a squad bristling with talent to the minnows from the fishing town inside the Arctic Circle and promptly gets an unexpected, but well-deserved thrashing from a team made up of nine Norwegians, a Danish striker and a Russian-Israeli keeper.
Nothing Bodo does on the pitch is a secret. They invite their opponents to attack them, defending narrowly and then hitting them on the break, and it has proved to be a very successful formula.
On Thursday morning, he and his staff will sit down in their offices underneath the grandstand at the Aspmyra Stadium to plan their approach to the return leg in Lisbon next Tuesday, with a place in the Champions League quarterfinals up for grabs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so complex, but we have to be just as humble and hungry for what鈥檚 to come,鈥 Knutsen said. 鈥 Reuters
