Who are Celtic’s Europa Conference League opponents FK Bodo/Glimt? All the lowdown on the Norwegian outfit
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Celtic return to European competition on Thursday night when they host opposition that many followers of Scottish football will be unfamiliar with.
FK Bodo/Glimt will visit Parkhead for the first leg of their Europa Conference League round of 32 clash high in confidence, despite the loss of key players to Premiership outfit Hibernian in the January transfer window.
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Hide AdHoops manager Ange Postecoglou believes his side CAN win the newly-formed competition, set up for teams who were eliminated in the Europa League play-offs and the rest coming from the Conference League qualifiers.
Should Celtic see off their Norwegian opponents, the Glasgow giants could face the likes of Leicester City, Roma, Fenerbahce, PSV Eindhoven or Marseille.
Postecoglou admitted earlier this week: “I want to go deep in every competition. I’ve never entered anything without thinking about trying to be successful in it.
“I took Australia to a World Cup and thought I could win it. I know people will say I’m being ridiculous but that’s just the way I’m made up.
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Hide Ad“You go into something and do your utmost to be successful so that’s what we’ll do in Europe. We’re in it and we want success in it.
“That’s what we’ll try to do. I’m not discounting this competition. I want us to perform well in it and win because it adds to the prestige and story of this football club.”
So who are FK Bodo/Glimt? Here, GlasgowWorld profiles the Norwegian outfit.
FORMED: 1916
NICKNAME: Glimt (Lightning), Superlaget, Den Gule Horde
STADIUM: Aspmyra Stadion (7,354)
MANAGER: Kjetil Knutsen - Has worked his way up the club after starting out as a coach and took charge of first-team affairs over three years ago.
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Hide AdHONOURS: They are the reigning Eliteserien (Norwegian top-flight) champions. Twice winners of the Norwegian Cup and 9x winners of the now defunct Northern Norwegian Cup.
RECORD VS SCOTTISH CLUBS: They have never faced Scottish opposition in their 39 European games to date.
STAR MAN: Ola Solbakken - The 23-year-old striker has scored five goals in Europa this season, including three against Serie A giants Roma.
Located in the North of Norway, the town of Bodo was without a major football club until the latter part of 1916 until a new club was founded as a Football Club Glimt (meaning flash). They won their first piece of silverware three years later: County Champions of Nordland.
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Hide AdGlimt established themselves as a top club in Northern Norway in the early 1930s. However, teams from this region were not allowed to compete in the Norwegian Cup (senior domestic cup competition) until 1963.
The club reached the fourth round on their debut, which included a famous victory over Rosenborg.
Promotion to the Norwegian top division was introduced to northern teams in 1972 at a time when the country has three second divisions; two for southern clubs and one for northern clubs.
It took Bodo/Glimt over three years to earn promotion but they finished runners-up to Lillestrom in both the league and cup in 1977.
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Hide AdHowever, relegation followed in 1980, regarded as the darkest hours in the club’s history before their fortunes eventually changed in 1993 under a new management team.
Their time in the Eliteserien has been rather up and down with a positive league performance one season often followed by near relegation the next year.
Glimt won the Norwegian Cup and finish in second place domestically one again in 1993 but clung on to their top tier status the following season on goal-difference.
They remained a top division club for 12 seasons before suffering relegation in 2005. They failed to bounce straight back up after a season plagued by financial difficulties, which led to the club to sell their top scorer and captain to their promotion rivals to stabilise their situation.
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Hide AdHowever, the following season saw the club regain their place in the top division. Their checkered performance-chart would continue over the ensuing years and in 2016 found themselves back down in the second tier after losing their final four fixtures.
That led the club to appoint unknown Kjetil Knutsen as assistant coach and Bodo/Glimt stormed to the title by a 16-point margin.
Ahead of the 2018 season, Knutsen was promoted to head coach and built on a solid first year in charge by securing second spot domestically and winning the league’s Coach of the Year award.
Their breakthrough year came in 2020. Following the sale of important players, the club were not considered among the title candidates.
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Hide AdHowever, Bodo/Glimt enjoyed a record-breaking season, winning 26 games and scoring 103 goals in 30 matches as they won the Eilteserien for the first time in their history.
They were crowned back-to-back champions the following season after winning their final match 3-0 against Mjondalen.
Knutsen also succeeded in not only qualifying for the group stage of a European competition last term, but also guided his side through their section, recording a famous 6-1 thrashing of Jose Mourinho's Roma in the process.
The club were once again forced to sell their prized assets in recent months, with 21-year-old striker Erik Botheim, last season’s top scorer, moving to Russian giants Krasnodar.
In-form Celtic will undoubtedly be in for a tough test but the Hoops have won 18 of their last 26 European home matches and should have enough firepower to overcome their Norwegian counterparts.
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