With a three-goal deficit from the first leg, Sporting CP are facing what would be just the third time a Portuguese side have been eliminated by a Norwegian opponent in the knockout stages of a major European competition – previously União de Leiria v Molde (2003-2004 UEFA Cup) and Sporting CP themselves v Viking (1999-2000 UEFA Cup).
Bodø/Glimt have a 100% record against Portuguese sides in European competition (3/3), with their first leg triumph over Sporting CP being the third different opponent they have beaten (also 3-2 v FC Porto and 2-1 v Braga in last season’s UEFA Europa League).
Sporting CP have won all three of their home matches against Norwegian sides in European competition and kept a clean sheet in all three; one of these was a 4-0 victory over Lyn in September 1971 (Cup Winners’ Cup).
Sporting CP have overturned a three-goal deficit to progress from a knockout stage tie in major European competition once previously, eliminating Manchester United in the 1963-64 Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals (lost 1-4 in the first leg, won 5-0 at home in the second leg).
Bodø/Glimt are looking to become just the second Norwegian team to reach the quarter-final stage of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, after Rosenborg in the 1996-97 edition.
Sporting CP are currently on their longest winless run in the knockout stages of a major European competition (six games – D3 L3), and have failed to score in their last three matches. They last failed to find the net in four in a row in September 1982 (4).
Bodø/Glimt have won each of their last five games in this competition, and could equal the longest European Cup/UEFA Champions League winning streak by a team from outside of Europe’s big five leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy & France): 6-game streaks by Benfica (1990), Spartak Moscow (1995) and Ajax (2021).
Kasper Høgh has scored five goals for Bodø/Glimt in the UEFA Champions League this season – only two Danish players have ever netted more in a single edition of the European Cup/Champions League: Søren Lerby for Ajax in 1979-80 (10) and Bent Löfqvist for B1913 in 1961-62 (6).
Sporting CP’s Gonçalo Inácio has averaged 15.1 line-breaking passes per 90 in the UEFA Champions League this season; the second most by a defender (min. 500 minutes played), only behind Borussia Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck (18.3).
Bodø/Glimt’s Jens Petter Hauge has been directly involved in six goals in his last six UEFA Champions League appearances (4 goals, 2 assists), while only Fede Valverde (5) has more goal involvements than Hauge in the knockout stages of this edition (4 – 2 goals, 2 assists).