FK Bodo/Glimt (Norway)
Manager - Kjetil Knutsen.
Domestic form - 3rd in Norway's Eliteserien, it's a summer league and therefore Bodo/Glimt have only played four games so far, winning three, drawing the fourth.
Europa League form - finished just outside the top eight in ninth, which meant a play-off against Dutch side Twente (6-4 on aggregate). They then beat Olympiacos in the Round of 16 (4-2 on aggregate, with a 3-0 home leg win) and famously Lazio on penalties in the quarter-finals (again, after a 2-0 home win).
Andy Brassell...
"Bodo/Glimt is an incredible story. I guess the thing to point out is how they got here, which is on the back of their their home form, as you would expect, but also with some gutsy performances away. People would look at it on paper, the fact that they lost to Lazio in the quarter-final away leg and pulled it around in extra time, but it's the fact they did pull it around extra time that's the amazing thing, because the longer it went on, the more people would have expected them to lose. So, they actually missed a golden chance to win it in in stoppage time through Andreas Helmersen, then they conceded a goal in the second minute of stoppage time to go into extra time. They then went 3-0 down, and then Helmersen pulled them out of it with the goal that ends up taking them to to penalties (3-1 on the night, 3-3 on aggregate). Helmersen's going to be suspended for the first leg, by the way, as well as Patrick Berg, who's their sort of north star in midfield, so that's a real big loss. Helmersen was sent off at the end of extra time in in that game against Lazio. The impressive thing to me is not just how they keep their nerve, but a fact that we're kind of overlooking because we've never had a Norwegian club in a a semi-final of a European competition is that they are only four games into their domestic season, and they've started quite well, but when you look at how tired most teams around Europe look at the top level, this is the advantage of a summer league. If you are a club from a country that runs a summer league, and you manage to get this far in Europe, you'll have a lot more in the tank, and I think that showed in how they negotiated extra time against Lazio.
"Bodo/Glimt's club model is amazing. They've won four of the last five Eliteserien titles, and the fact they've done that and competed in Europe has allowed them to build up a financial strength as well as a sporting strength that's not that common for Norway. For example, when Patrick Berg went to Lens, didn't really like it, they were able to buy him back for £4million, which no other Norwegian club could do. Look at Jens Petter Hauge, who will be a threat, he went to Milan, to Eintracht Frankfurt, where he won the Europa League, and they were able to bring him back. Inevitably, they will lose players as the years go by, but they've got a strong enough brand and name now that they can get in players that no other Norwegian club would would be able to. Of course, the fact that Kjetil Knutsen (manager) has has been there for seven or eight years, I think that's key as well. He's been offered Premier League jobs, heavily linked with a Brighton job, but he stuck with Bodo/Glimt because he feels like it's a it's a great project. So, they are in a better position than pretty much any of their domestic rivals by a long way. I guess you could say in a different format of the Europa League - last season's - it would have been incredibly hard to get this far, but they've taken advantage of this this new format. I think they're a genuine contender to win the competition - we can't be writing them off."