The knockout playoffs are complete after a whirlwind round of action. Bodø/Glimt’s fairytale continues while the holders struggled again
Bodø/Glimt’s 2-1 defeat of Inter at San Siro continued this season’s miracle. The post-match discussion between Inter coach Cristian Chivu and his opposite number, Kjetil Knutsen, was one of admiration, an acknowledgment the Norwegian team had been too good for the runaway Serie A leaders. Even though Inter were without Lautaro Martínez, their standard bearer, a comeback seemed likely as they dominated the early stages. But they found no way through, eventually falling victim to the high-quality, high-speed attacking that had left them with a 3-1 deficit to overcome from the first leg.
“The hardest thing was to create an opening,” lamented Inter’s Nicolò Barella of the long spell of toil that preceded Jens Petter Hauge stabbing in his sixth goal in this season’s competition before Håkon Evjen completed a counter and sealed progress with a brilliant strike.
“We tried everything we could,” Chivu said. Like Manchester City and Atlético Madrid before them, Inter were dumbfounded by the team laying claim to be Scandinavia’s best since IFK Gothenburg picked up two Uefa Cups in the 1980s and reached the European Cup semi-final in 1986.
