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These are strange times for Tottenham. Historically they’ve often been a side whose performances didn’t match their results, but tradition has it they would be pretty and ineffective. Under Thomas Frank they’ve become the opposite. Just as at Brighton they went 2-0 down and came back to draw; again, there was more to admire in their character than how they played. And if Andreas Helmersen’s effort hadn’t hit the bar with a couple of minutes remaining, it would have been a very different story.
This was Bodø/Glimt’s first home game in the group phase of the Champions League, and they were determined to make the most of it. The pre-match singing of the club anthem was heartfelt and gently moving, and followed by the rhythmic detonation of a series of fireworks, startlingly loud in the still Arctic night. European football has little place these days for romance but Glimt remain an example of what can be achieved by enlightened leadership even in a remote town of just over 50,000 population.
They may have won four of the past five Norwegian championships, and be handily placed as this season’s title race enters the run-in, but this is not a club that has become sated by silverware. Their recent success has not quite come from nowhere – they did have a handful of second-placed finishes, but in the eighties, as they slid into the third flight, Glimt weren’t even the biggest team in Bodø, that honour belonging to Grand.
Back then their main claim to fame was the forward slash in their name, introduced to avoid the confusion their hyphen caused on betting coupons. The hyphen itself was a product of Glimt adding Bodø to their name in 1948 so they wouldn’t be mixed up with a similarly named club from Trøndelag.
All around town, among the clapboard houses and along the dockside, yellow Glimt flags could be seen, while the mood was simultaneously welcoming and disbelieving. This is still a club for whom playing in the Champions League is a privilege. A comeback earned them a 2-2 draw away to Slavia Prague two weeks ago in their first game in the group and there was no hint of inferiority here.
Where Spurs, having made five changes from Saturday’s draw against Wolves, and perhaps missing the leadership of Cristian Romero, left in London as a precaution, struggled for rhythm, Glimt attacked with fluency and purpose. An awkwardly swerving shot from their captain Patrick Berg drew an early save from Guglielmo Vicario and there were a couple of half-chances from corners before a late challenge from Rodrigo Bentancur on Fredrik André Bjørkan gave Glint a 32nd-minute penalty.
Presented with a historic opportunity, though, Kasper Høgh smashed his shot so high over the bar that it cleared the seating behind the goal and might even have cleared the tiled roofs of the houses across the street had there not been a net strung between the flagpoles at the top of the stand.
There were other chances for Glimt as they enjoyed 64% of possession before the break, Jens Petter Hauge, a persistent menace ghosting in from the left, flashed a shot just wide and then Sondre Brunstad Fet fired over after a cut-back had found him in space in the middle of the box.
Spurs were fortunate to get in level at half-time. They had creaked at times defensively and offered very little as an attacking threat. Recent performances – the home humbling against Bournemouth, the drab 1-0 win over Villarreal, the draw with Wolves – had dampened down some of the optimism of early season, and there was little in the first half here to reignite it.
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The goal that had been coming almost form kick-off arrived eight minutes into the second half, Hauge drifting infield and curving a shot into the far corner. The 25 year old was born in the city and began his career with Glimt before leaving for spells at Milan and Eintracht Frankfurt where he became the first Norwegian to win the Europa League before returning to Glimt on loan last season. He skipped through to add a second 13 minutes later.
Nikita Haikin, the Glimt goalkeeper, had pointed out how “unusual” it was that Tottenham focus so much on set-plays and for a long time that did appear their only threat. Rodrigo Bentancur appeared to have levelled two minutes after the Glimt opener, as the ball was returned to the centre after a Pedro Porro free-kick had hit the post; it was ruled out after a VAR review for a pull by Micky van de Ven.
Spurs did score two minutes after Glimt’s second, Van de Ven heading in another Porro free-kick, raising hopes of an unlikely comeback. Wilson Odobert headed a Mohammed Kudus delivery against the crossbar and then in the 89th minute came an equaliser, Archie Gray’s shot eventually ricocheting in off Jostein Gundersen. Deserved? Perhaps not, but when has that ever mattered?
