With one tentative foot in the Europa League final, Tottenham Hotspur travel to Norway to face Bodo/Glimt at Aspmyra Stadion for the second leg of their semi-final tie on Thursday night.
Spurs secured a 3-1 first-leg victory in North London last week and the victors of this contest on aggregate will face either Manchester United or Athletic Bilbao in the showpiece event.
Match preview
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It took just 38 seconds for Brennan Johnson to fire Tottenham ahead in the first leg, and strikes from James Maddison and Dominic Solanke then opened up a three-goal cushion inside 61 minutes, but a late consolation from Bodo/Glimt's Ulrik Saltnes has given the Norwegian champions a glimmer of hopes.
Although Spurs have edged themselves closer to winning their first major trophy in 17 years, head coach Ange Postecoglou has bemoaned the "negative narrative" around the club, who are relying on Europa League glory to qualify for next season's Champions League as a result of their miserable domestic campaign.
Tottenham have lost a staggering 19 of their 35 Premier League games this season, with three defeats in a row followed by last weekend's 1-1 draw at London rivals West Ham United, leaving them languishing in 16th place and 14 points behind the top half of the table.
Postecoglou, who stated at the start of this season that he "always win things in my second year", is keen to address his team's poor away form, with just two wins recorded in their last 10 games on the road in all competitions (D1 L7), although Spurs did beat Eintracht Frankfurt and kept a rare clean sheet in their most recent Europa League trip, winning 1-0 to secure their spot in the semi-finals.
Tottenham have not won back-to-back away games in major European competition since November 2013, but they boast a 100% record against Norwegian opposition following last week's success over Bodo/Glimt - Spurs have never faced teams from a specific country more often whilst keeping a 100% win-rate in the process.
The North Londoners will back themselves to get the job done on Thursday, as only nine teams out of 92 in Europa League history have failed to progress from a knockout tie when leading by two or more goals from a first leg on home soil since the competition's rebrand ahead of the 2009-10 season.
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Regardless of the outcome of Thursday's second leg, Bodo/Glimt have already made history as they are the first and only Norwegian team to have reached the semi-final of a major European competition.
Superlaget have had a full week to rest and prepare for their latest clash with Tottenham and are bidding to prevail against English opposition for the very first time having lost all four of their previous such meetings, including their only encounter on home soil against Spurs' North London rivals Arsenal in the 2022-23 Europa League (1-0).
Including last week's loss at Spurs, Bodo/Glimt have suffered defeat in seven of their 11 Europa League away games since the start of the 2022-23 campaign - the second-most after Roma (eight) - while they also have the lowest win percentage (9%) of the 19 teams who have played eight or more away matches in that time frame. However, they have had far more success on home soil.
Indeed, Bodo/Glimt have won each of their last five Europa League home matches, scoring 15 goals in the process, and most recently stunned Lazio - who finished top of the 36-team table - by a 2-0 scoreline in their quarter-final second leg, before winning the tie on penalties.
Bodo/Glimt have in fact won each of their last eight games at home in all competitions, including their opening two matches of the 2025 Norwegian Eliteserien season by a 3-0 scoreline, and head coach Kjetil Knutsen has urged his players to "go for it" on Thursday if they wish to etch their names into the history books.
Team News
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Tottenham's James Maddison was forced off in the first leg with a knee injury and is now expected to miss the rest of the season, while Radu Dragusin (ACL) and Lucas Bergvall (ankle) are also sidelined.
However, Postecoglou is hopeful that Dominic Solanke (thigh) and Son Heung-min (foot) can be involved on Thursday. If not, then both Richarlison and Brennan Johnson could be joined in the front three by either Mathys Tel or Wilson Odobert, who scored in Spurs' draw at West Ham.
Dejan Kulusevski will likely fill the creative void left by Maddison and the Swede could link up with Rodrigo Bentancur and either Yves Bissouma or Pape Matar Sarr in centre-midfield, while Postecoglou is expected to revert to a back four of Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie which began the first leg.
As for Bodo/Glimt, Daniel Bassi is set to remain sidelined with a leg injury, but Knutsen will be boosted by the return of captain Patrick Berg, Hakon Evjen and Andreas Helmersen who all missed the first leg through suspension.
Both Berg and Evjen are set to recalled and join Ulrik Saltnes in midfield, with Jens Petter Hauge and Sondre Brunstad Fet set to make way, while Helmersen will likely provide cover as a substitute for Kasper Hogh, who sit level with Bruno Fernandes and Ayoub El Kaabi at the top of the Europa League scoring charts (seven).
Knutsen will weigh up whether to stick with Isak Dybvik Maatta on the right flank or move Hauge from midfield into the front three with Hogh and Ole Didrik Blomberg, while a four-man defence of Fredrik Sjovold, Villads Nielsen, Jostein Gundersen and Fredrik Bjorkan is set to remain intact.
Bodo/Glimt possible starting lineup:
Haikin; Sjovold, Nielsen, Gundersen, Bjork; Evjen, Berg, Saltnes; Maatta, Hogh, Blomberg
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Sarr, Bentancur, Kulusevski; Johnson, Solanke, Tel
We say: Bodo/Glimt 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs to win 5-3 on aggregate)
Bodo/Glimt will welcome a return to home soil where they have put together a strong run of form and they will back themselves to make the net ripple against a porous Spurs backline that has kept just one clean sheet in their last 15 games across all competitions.
Overturning a two-goal deficit cannot be ruled out, but it may be a step too far on this occasion. Spurs supporters could be in for a few nail-biting moments in Norway, but Postecoglou's men should ultimately do enough to seal their spot in the Europa League final.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Oliver Thomas
