(Linfield – Bodø / Glimt 1-0) Bodø / Glimt controlled the entire match in Northern Ireland, and it seemed that it was only in attack that it was bad for the Bodø residents. But minutes before the end, Marius Høibråten served the home team a far too early Christmas present.
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– What are you doing, Høibråten ?! No and no, this was in many ways what should not happen, VG’s commentator Vegard Aulstad exclaimed when Kirk Millar took good care of the gift package from midfielder Høibråten.
Millar chipped over Bodø / Glimt’s Nikita Haikin seven minutes before the end in an elegant way, and then there was finally a hole in the boil in what was a very “tough” match.
– It gets damn brutal in the end when what happens happens. Right now it’s lead heavy. I get a bad touch that leads to another bad touch and that leads to their goal, says Høibråten to Avisa Nordland.
– It is leaden, but at the same time you just have to get up. There is nothing else to do. We controlled the match, but were not sharp enough in the last third. But it is not over even if you have a brain haemorrhage, he adds.
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– It’s tough to stand in it, but have to shake it off as best it can, it’s also good that there will be a match at Aspmyra in a week. It is human to make mistakes. This is not the first time people have made a mistake, the stopper says to the club YouTube-kanal.
The pre-favorites Bodø / Glimt, without Amahl Pellegrino from the start, dominated the game against Linfield, but the big chances did not materialize on the hot Tuesday night in Northern Ireland.
– If we had played for 40 hours we would not have been able to score, says Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen to same newspaper.
The loss tonight does not mean that the Norwegians are out of the Champions League qualification. On Wednesday next week, the return match will be played at Aspmyra, but Linfield will then have a one-goal lead that Glimt must bring into the summary.
We did not see the Glimt attack we were so used to from last season. Maybe it had something to do with their tight match program or that the aces Pellegrino and Victor Boniface warmed up the bench from the start.
Pellegrino, who came on the field with Boniface with 25 minutes left to play, did not spend long on the field before he got a finish saved on the line, but it was only with that chance. The Linfield defense not only bothered Pellegrino, but they were still close to the Bodø / Glimt players at almost every shot attempt.
This was also the case in the first round:
The Northern Irish got the match picture in the track they wanted. They were comfortable lying low in the field and let the Norwegians roll the ball. Bodø / Glimt did everything right in the first and second half of the field, but there were many imprecise passes in the last third.
The home team could thus slow down the pace on many occasions. At the same time, they yelled at some transitions, and the Glimt defense showed that they could not relax quite of.
It was a somewhat more aggressive Bodø / Glimt team that came on the field after the break, but there was a long time between the good opportunities.
–Pellegrino came to the away team’s biggest chance when his finish was saved on the line, but there were not many more chances despite Knutsen changing his star players.
It did not help much either when Høibråten served the ball to Millar, and then it is suddenly a somewhat difficult starting point for the stallholders to the return settlement.
Tuesday’s loss means that Bodø / Glimt have lost two straight away games in the Champions League qualifiers. Last week, Glimt lost 1-3 away against Klaksvik, but was saved by the 3-0 victory at home the week before.
Usually Linfield has struggled against Norwegian teams in the European Cups: