Bodo/Glimt completed a stunning 5-2 aggregate success over last season’s runners-up Inter in the Champions League play-offs, after a terrific 2-1 win at San Siro.
Jens Petter Hauge, formerly of Inter’s rivals AC Milan, made it 1-0 after a Manuel Akanji error, with Hakon Evjen’s glorious strike then doubling Bodo’s lead on the night.
Alessandro Bastoni got one back for Inter, but Cristian Chivu’s hosts already looked resigned to defeat by that point, as Bodo became the first-ever Norwegian team to win a Champions League knockout tie. They will play Manchester City or Sporting CP for a quarter-final place.
The onus was on Inter to attack after losing 3-1 in Norway last week, and they laid siege to the Bodo area in the first half, only to find goalkeeper Nikita Haikin in outstanding form.
Haikin tipped Federico Dimarco’s dipping strike over the crossbar then instinctively parried Davide Frattesi’s header from a Dimarco corner, either side of Bastoni nodding over.
Bodo did create one decent opening late in the first half, when Evjen’s header was saved by Yann Sommer at full stretch, and they were in dreamland in the 58th minute.
Akanji sent a careless back pass straight to Ole Didrik Blomberg, and though Sommer blocked his powerful shot, the ball dropped straight to Hauge for a tap-in.
After Akanji hit the post from close range, Bodo went four goals up in the tie in the 72nd minute, with Evjen controlling Hauge’s incisive pass before striking cleanly across Sommer and into the far corner.
Bastoni just about forced the ball in to pull one back four minutes later, with goal-line technology confirming the goal, but Inter never threatened to cut the deficit any further on a historic evening for Norwegian football.
VI KLARTE DET!!! pic.twitter.com/NlMmhx8PeG
— FK Bodø/Glimt (@Glimt) February 24, 2026
Data Debrief: Bodo break new ground
Not since 1987-88, when Lillestrom defeated Linfield in the first round of the European Cup, had a Norwegian team won a knockout-stage tie in UEFA’s premier club competition.
But Kjetil Knutsen’s side continue to break new ground, doing so with a swagger. They had just seven shots to Inter’s 30 here, but they only marginally lost the expected goals (xG) battle, by 1.74 to 2.14.
Having also beaten Man City and Atletico Madrid in the league phase, they are the first team from outside Europe’s big five leagues to win four straight games in a European Cup/Champions League campaign against teams from those leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France) since Ajax in 1971-72, who won the trophy that season.
Hauge was their outstanding player again, and his six Champions League goals this season are now the outright most by a Norwegian player for a Norwegian club in a single edition.