Our Academy turned on the style to breeze past Bodo/Glimt in our second match of this season’s UEFA Youth League at Aspmyra Stadion on Tuesday morning.
Three goals either side of half-time gave us a commanding 6-0 victory on a bright, mild day in northern Norway, captain Callum Olusesi – who has experience of this ground after being on the bench for the first team in our memorable Europa League semi-final victory in May – leading the way with a classy double, joining on the scoresheet by Harry Byrne, James Rowswell, Tynan Thompson and Reiss Elliott-Parris.
Bodo/Glimt managed a couple of late attempts but we outshone them for the bulk of the game and could have scored more, particularly in the first half. Capitalising on the hosts’ mistakes at the back led to a handful of our goals as we produced a committed, front-foot display to make it two wins out of two in the league phase of the Under-19 competition, where the fixtures mirror those of the senior team in the Champions League.
Left-back Byrne saw a fierce shot well saved by Isak Sjong while Elliott-Parris couldn’t guide his early header on target after Rowswell nodded Byrne’s delivery back across goal as we threatened early on – and it didn’t take us too long to find the breakthrough, 20 minutes on the clock when Olusesi pounced on a loose pass, played a give-and-go with Elliott-Parris before firing across goal and into the net from the right angle.
Seven minutes later, it was 2-0 as we kept the ball alive after George Feeney’s header from Miracle Adewole’s cross was saved, Byrne launching a rocket of a shot into the net from distance. Olusesi was making it look easy as he strolled past a handful of players before setting up Elliott-Parris for a shot-on-the-turn, saved by Sjong, with the striker left frustrated again moments afterwards as he was denied by the goalkeeper one-on-one.
We extended our lead three minutes before the break with a fine goal, Byrne’s pinpoint pass into the box controlled superbly by Rowswell, who turned and drilled home for his second goal in as many games in this competition.
There were fewer chances in the opening stages of the second half, but we nearly grabbed a fourth on the hour mark when Feeney’s angled shot was blocked by Sjong, with Oli Irow – in the same matchday squad as his younger brother Blake for the first time – seeing a looping header on the follow-up cleared off the line by Sturla Sagatun-Kristjansson.
We went back on the offensive in the latter part of the game, though, Olusesi again looking a cut above as he breezed past a couple of players before thumping a low shot into the bottom corner – an excellent solo goal – with 70 minutes gone before substitute Thompson latched onto a loose pass out from the back, took on his man before lashing high inside the near post on his left foot 10 minutes later.
It took Bodo until the 84th minute to have a meaningful attempt on target, Hindrin Najah Chooly’s right angled shot sharply taken by Sam Archer at his near post, but within 60 seconds we notched another, Elliott-Parris this time pouncing on a mistake in Bodo’s defence to run through and slot past the goalkeeper, finally getting himself on the scoresheet after his earlier endeavours were thwarted.
The hosts, cheered on by a large crowd of local schoolchildren amidst a mountainous backdrop on a clear day with airplanes frequently taking off from the nearby airport – seemingly a mere goal-kick away – almost bagged a consolation deep into stoppage time, but substitute Johannes Linakar Jenssen’s drive from inside the box was heroically blocked by Elijah Upson as we kept our clean sheet intact.