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Bodø/Glimt 0-2 (1-5) Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs fly to Europa League final
SPURS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO THE SAN MAMES!
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Six years to the day after one of Tottenham Hotspur’s most dramatic European competition wins — the Miracle in Amsterdam that sent them to the Champions League final, Spurs qualified for their second European final of the Premier League era. Facing a Bodø/Glimt team that had lost only once in the Europa League, scoring 19 goals in the process, Spurs stodged up the match defensively, capitalized on two second half chances, and shut the Norwegian hosts out. Spurs got a goal from Dominic Solanke off a corner kick, and followed it up a few minutes later with a ridiculous blast off the post by Pedro Porro, and rolled to a 2-0 lead at the Aspmyra Stadion in northern Norway.
The result gave Spurs a decisive 5-1 win over two legs, and punched their ticket to Bilbao, Spain where they will face a Manchester United team that they have already beaten three times this season. The final will take place on Wednesday, May 21 at Athletic Club’s San Mames Stadium.
While Bodø is in the Arctic Circle, the weather was misty, wet, and relatively mild with calm winds, which played into Spurs’ hands. Facing an opponent that likes to break into space and catch opponents by surprise, Spurs instead sat deeper, let Bodø/Glimt have the ball, and mucked things up as best they could. Tottenham would’ve been quite content with a boring 0-0 draw; instead, they scored twice and took both their goals well.
Here are my match reactions to another Glory, Glory Night in European competition.
Match Reactions
Y’ALL WE’RE IN THE FINALS OF THE EUROPA LEAGUE LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
There was absolutely nothing surprising about the starting lineup — it was the same as they put out against B/G in London.
An ugly, boring match suited Tottenham just fine up two goals on the road WOOOOand that’s pretty much what we got. Spurs tried to slow the game down, subtly waste as much time as they could, and stodge things up — basically Big Sam Ball. Sitting deeper helped prevent B/G from countering and attacking into space, which is where they’re really good.
Contrary to what we all expected pre-match, the artificial field didn’t seem to play very fast — in fact, the ball died quickly on the wet turf. Passes seemed to zip a little more but they didn’t carry much once they hit the ground.
Spurs did look like they were selectively pressing high initially to try and kill the match off early, though they did noticeably sit off of Berg early. Kulusevski man-marked Berg for most of the match and it seemed pretty effective in keeping him from overtly influencing the game.
Micky van de Ven won a defensive header inside 10 minutes, which felt at the time like a good omen.
B/G had the majority of the possession in this match, and that felt like by design. Spurs seemed confident they could let them pass the ball around and still keep defensive solidity, much like they did in the first match.
B/G were successfully getting forward more in the second half, which gave the match an edge it didn’t quite have in the opening 45.
Destiny Udogie had a fantastic match, especially defensively — rarely lost his man, was tracking B/G players to the back post, made a couple of fantastic stops.
Another super solid match from Richarlison. In both legs he’s played better than Solanke as a striker and it makes me think what might have been if he’d stayed healthy this season. His sub was likely for fitness reasons.
Spurs’ goal was just a well worked corner routine — Tel puts the ball to the back post, Cuti headed it back across the face of goal, and Solanke was right there to poke it in. Fantastic, and allowed everyone watching to breathe. Honestly wondered if Cuti’s header was going in regardless of Dom’s presence.
Here are my exact notes at THAT moment: HOLY CRAP PEDRO PORRO WHAT
There’s no funnier way than for B/G to get a dodgy penalty in the final 10 seconds of the match, only to have VAR call it back for diving. lol....lmao
United also won their series 7-1 on aggregate over Athletic Bilbao, denying them the chance to win a title in their home stadium. Yes, it means another banterrific European Cup final (what could possibly go wrong) but as bad as Spurs have been this season at times, they’ve still had United’s number. And I’d still rather play them than Athletic.
Enjoy it, y’all. We’re one game away from breaking our silverware drought in the most awesome way, and delivering Ange Postecoglou his Year Two Trophy™.
— Cartilage Free Captain (@cartilagefree.bsky.social) 2025-05-08T20:36:52.799Z