Tottenham are on the brink of reaching the Europa League final as they fight in their semi-final second leg against Bodo/Glimt.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have had a nightmare season, but their impressive run in Europe means they still have a shot at silverware.
Spurs lead 3-1 on aggregate after the first leg last week, putting in a strong performance to now take a two-goal advantage to Norway.
A draw with West Ham at the weekend ended their four-game Premier League losing streak and that brings some positivity to the build-up to this huge tie.
Bodo/Glimt haven’t played domestically since their first-leg loss and they will have their home crowd behind them as they look to embarrass Tottenham.
Bodo/Glimt vs Tottenham: Never done before
Tottenham can achieve something they’ve never managed before on Thursday.
After winning the first-leg last week, Spurs made it eight victories in Europe this season, which is only three less than their Premier League tally.
Should they win the second leg too, it would see them break a 64-year record.
Since their first ever appearance in a major European competition in 1961, they have never won nine games across a single campaign.
Spurs will feel they can go to Bodo/Glimt and achieve this feat, especially when considering recent history when having a two-goal lead.
Since the 2009/10 season, there have been 92 instances of a side winning the first leg of a Europa League knockout match on home soil by a 2+ goal margin.
Only nine teams have failed to progress in the overall tie, with all eight prior semi-finalists to achieve the feat progressing to the final.
With their 3-1 first leg victory, Tottenham made it five wins out of five against Norwegian opposition in major European competition. They’ve never faced sides from a specific country more often whilst keeping a 100% win-rate in the process.
Bodø/Glimt have lost seven of their last 12 knockout matches in European competition (W3 D2), although all three victories during that time for the Norwegian side have come on home soil, including a 2-0 victory over Lazio at the quarter final stage.
Tottenham won their last away UEFA Europa League game 1-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt, but haven’t won back-to-back away matches in major European competition since November 2013 (3 in the Europa League), and last did so in knockout stages in March 2008 (2 in the UEFA Cup).
Bodo/Glimt vs Tottenham: Team news
Bodo/Glimt XI: Haikin, Gunderson, Berge, Hogh, Blomberg, Saltnes, Bjorkan, Moe, Sjovold, Hauge, Evjen.
Subs: Lund, Nielsen, Auklend, Fet, Helmersen, Maatta, Soril, Hansen, Jensen.
Tottenham XI: Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Bentancur, Bissouma, Kulusevski, Johnson, Richarlison, Solanke.
Subs: Austin, Whiteman, Danos, Spence, Davies, Sarr, Oluesi, Ajayi, Odobert, Gray, Moore, Tel.
Kasper Høgh has netted seven goals in the UEFA Europa League for Bodø/Glimt this season, the joint-most of any player, alongside Olympiakos’ Ayoub El Kaabi and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes. His 50% shot conversion rate is the joint-highest of any player to score 3+ goals this season, whilst across the competition’s history, only James Tavernier in 2021-22 has netted as many goals in a campaign whilst holding a higher conversion rate (7 goals – 53.8%).
Dominic Solanke has recorded eight goal contributions in the UEFA Europa League this season (4 goals, 4 assists), the most by a Spurs player in major European competition since Carlos Vinícius during the 2020-21 campaign in this competition (9 – 6 goals, 3 assists).
Bodo/Glimt vs Tottenham: What has been said?
Postecoglou was still left frustrated at the negative narrative surrounding Spurs, even after beating Bodo/Glimt in the first leg.
Speaking about people doubting his side heading into the second leg, he said: "If you expect something to go wrong, it will.
"People are their experiences and Tottenham supporters have had some near misses for a long time, so there’s always this safeguarding of not getting too excited about what’s happening. But part of creating a winning culture is not to fall into that trap.
"Winners don’t think about things in that way, they don’t think about what could possibly go wrong - they have a real clarity around what they need to do to win, and I’m trying to create that with that group of players.
"The narrative around the club is not positive at all.
"Whether you follow the club or not, there’s always some sort of negative connotation to everything that happens at the club. That’s existed for a very long time, you need to break through that."
Including qualifiers, Bodø/Glimt have won nine of their last ten home European outings (L1), scoring 2+ goals in all but one of those matches – a 2-1 defeat to Qarabag during this season’s UEFA Europa League group stage.
Across their major European history, Bodø/Glimt have lost all four of their matches against English opposition, including their only one on home soil vs Arsenal in October 2022 (0-1). Each of the other three defeats have seen the Norwegian side concede exactly three goals
No side in the UEFA Europa League this season has netted more goals on home soil than Bodø/Glimt (19). Since the 2009-10 campaign in this competition, only Bayer Leverkusen have struck more home goals in a single season than the Norwegian outfit (21 in 2023-24).
Bodo/Glimt vs Tottenham: talkSPORT coverage
This Europa League semi-final second leg will take place on Thursday, May 8.
Kick-off at Aspmyra Stadion is schedule for 8pm.
talkSPORT 2 will have live coverage of the game.
Commentary will come from Alex Crook and former England striker Dean Ashton.
To tune in to talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
talkSPORT.com will be running a live blog of the action too.
Bodo/Glimt vs Tottenham: talkSPORT BET Odds
Match odds:
Bodo/Glimt - 6/4
Draw - 27/10
Tottenham - 6/4
To qualify:
Bodo/Glimt - 9/2
Tottenham - 1/9
*odds subject to change