Bodø/Glimt’s fairytale run in the Champions League is over.
The Norwegian club from a fishing town of around 55,000 people north of the Arctic Circle was beaten 5-0 by Sporting Lisbon after extra time in the second leg of the round of 16 on Tuesday and was eliminated 5-3 on aggregate.
Sporting’s stirring comeback — one of the greatest in the history of Europe's top club tournament — should give some inspiration to English clubs Manchester City and Chelsea, who also faced three-goal deficits against heavyweights Real Madrid (3-0) and Paris Saint-Germain (5-2) on Tuesday.
In the other match, Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen were tied at 1-1 going into the second leg in London — with the winner meeting Sporting in the quarterfinals.
Bodø/Glimt — the northernmost team ever to play in the Champions League — has charmed the world of soccer with an unlikely streak of wins in its debut campaign in Europe’s top tournament.
After beating Manchester City and Atletico Madrid in the final two rounds of the league stage to squeeze into the playoff round, Bodø/Glimt defeated Inter Milan — last season’s runner-up — home and away to advance to the round of 16.
A 3-0 win in its 8,000-capacity Aspmyra stadium last week didn’t prove enough against Sporting, which dominated throughout in the return match and scored through Gonçalo Inácio, Pedro Gonçalves and Luis Suarez to take the game to extra time.
There, Uruguay left back Maximiliano Araújo scored in the 92nd minute to put Sporting ahead on aggregate for the first time and Bodø/Glimt had no answer.
Rafael Nel added a fifth in stoppage time to complete the recovery. There has been only one bigger comeback in the Champions League — that was by Barcelona, which lost 4-0 to PSG in the first leg of the round of 16 in 2016-17 and rebounded with a 6-1 victory in the second leg.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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