A number of high Tippeligaen finishes around the turn of the millennium saw Bodo Glimpt feature in the UEFA Cup for the first time. Qualifying round wins over Beitar Jerusalem, Vaduz and Levadia Tallinn were followed by elimination against Turks Trabzonspor and Besiktas and the powerful Bundesliga side Werder Bremen. That would be it until Glimpt finished runners-up to Molde in 2019 then finally won the Norwegian title in 2020. They duly followed that up with a second success the following year.
Bodo Glimpt would enjoy comfortable home victories against Lithuanian opposition in the first two qualifying rounds of the 2020/21 Europa League, played as single match ties. The run would come to an end in the San Siro in the third qualifying round, as AC Milan edged a five-goal thriller. Milan would duly eliminate Celtic at the Group stage before losing in the Round of 16 to Manchester United.
This season’s campaign has been by far their best to date, featuring in the Champions League for the first time but losing home and away in the first qualifying round to Rapid Vienna, for whom Josip Juranovic had a brief cameo role before joining Celtic. But it was in the new UEFA Conference League that Glimpt have built their reputation, with qualifying round wins over Valur, Prishtina and Zalgirus before an unbeaten Group Stage campaign. The Norwegians enjoyed three straight victories at home, including a remarkable 6-1 success over Roma in the Aspmyra Stadion in October of last year.
That was supplemented by three draws against the Italians, Ukrainians Zorya Luhansk and CSKA Sofia, with Roma requiring a late equaliser in the Stadio Olimpico to avoid back-to-back defeats from Glimpt. Mourinho’s side’s win in Sofia on Matchday 6 meant that they would finish one point ahead of the Norwegians at the top of Group C, Glimpt then drawing Celtic in the Play-off Round in mid-December.
That success led to approaches for several of the Glimpt stars in the winter transfer window, captain Patrick Berg joining Ligue Un outfit Lens and striker Erik Botheim heading to Russia with Krasnodar. However, manager Kjetil Knutsen duly brought in suitable replacements to fit his system, prolific forward Runar Espejord from Dutch outfit Heerenveen being a case in point, whilst retaining other star performers such as Ulrik Saltnes, Hugo Vetlesen, Amahl Pellegrino and Ola Solbakken.
