After a 3-0 last 16 first leg defeat last week north of the Arctic Circle, Sporting produced a ruthless display in Portugal to book a spot in the last eight for the first time since the 1982/83 season.
Bodo/Glimt have drawn admirers across the world for their superb performances in this season’s Champions League but once Goncalo Inacio opened the scoring, the Portuguese champions never looked back.
Pedro Goncalves and Luis Suarez netted to force extra-time and Maximiliano Araujo scored in the 92nd minute to put Sporting ahead for the first time in the tie, before Rafael Nel smashed home a fifth late on.
“We had the right intensity and energy, we did what we didn’t do there,” forward Francisco Trincao told Sport TV.
“We had a different energy, a different kind of joy, and we played a historic game.
“Everyone believed, the fans also made us feel that energy, and during the game as time went on we realised we were capable and we carried that through to the end.”
Bodo/Glimt shocked last season’s runners-up Inter Milan in the play-off round and defeated Manchester City and Atletico Madrid in the league phase before that.
Those astonishing results were followed up by the first leg rout of Sporting at the Norwegians’ 8,000-capacity Aspmyra Stadium, giving Kjetil Knutsen’s side a tantalising sight of the last eight.
Perhaps it daunted them, as they seemed to be playing with fear from the start in Lisbon.
“We’ve had a fantastic journey, then we enter a game where it seems to me that we’re not playing the game, we’re playing the opportunity – and that opportunity is going to be too big for us,” Knutsen said.
“We were thinking about the consequences from the first kick. We were so far from our identity.”
The hosts dominated, racking up shots at nearly the same rate the Norwegian side were completing passes in the opening phases.
Around 2,000 Bodo/Glimt fans made the long trek to Jose Alvalade stadium, where their dream was mercilessly crushed under the rain. (AFP)
Edited by Cecil Wong
