Bodø/Glimt closes in on Champions League league phase with 3-1 edge over NEC Nijmegen

A fishing town inside the Arctic Circle is 90 minutes away from rubbing shoulders again with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG. It sounds far-fetched, but that is the story of Bodø/Glimt, and this week it could become official.

The Norwegian club arrives with a 3-1 lead over playoff debutant NEC Nijmegen from the first leg, and closes out the tie on Tuesday at its Arctic home ground. If it holds the advantage, Bodø/Glimt returns to the Champions League league phase draw, set for this Thursday in Monaco, the same competition in which it pulled off one of the continent's most talked about upsets last season by eliminating Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan along the way.

What makes it more striking is that Glimt entered this edition through the back door, having to start from the preliminary qualifying rounds back in August. There, the club eliminated Union Saint-Gilloise by a tight 6-5 on aggregate and has scored three goals in each of the three matches it has played on the way. The core of the squad has stayed largely intact, with the only notable departure being Danish forward Kasper Hogh, who moved to Celtic for roughly 11 million pounds (about $15 million).

Norway could still land two teams in the big draw. Viking, the domestic champion, hosts Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday with the tie level at 2-2, after the Croatian side squandered a two-goal lead in the first leg.

Other ties worth watching

That same Hogh and his new club are also in action on Tuesday: Celtic visits LASK in Austria holding a comfortable 3-0 lead from the first leg. On the other side of the map, Israeli champion Hapoel Beer Sheva travels to Azerbaijan to face Sabah, a club founded just nine years ago, with a 2-1 edge. And Lyon, now under the ownership of American investor Michele Kang, hosts Fenerbahce on Wednesday with the series tied at 1-1.

All of this gets settled right before Thursday's draw in Monaco, on the very same night, coincidentally, that the host club, Monaco, will play its own Conference League playoff ten minutes away, defending a 3-2 first-leg lead against Gornik Zabrze.

A stronger Europa League field and Conference League surprises

The Europa League arrives with a stronger lineup than last year: AC Milan, Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen await Friday's draw, alongside a curious English trio made up of Crystal Palace, the reigning Conference League champion, European newcomer Bournemouth, and Sunderland, which had not played in a UEFA competition in 53 years. The prize for whoever lifts the trophy in May in Frankfurt is a direct ticket into the Champions League. Thursday's playoffs feature Mo Salah's Trabzonspor, which overturns a 1-0 deficit away to Hungary's Ferencvaros, along with storied names like Benfica and Red Star Belgrade. Not everyone got the rub of the green: Swiss champion Thun, which had already been knocked out of the Champions League by Dinamo Zagreb, was thrashed 7-0 in the first leg by Lech Poznan.

In the Conference League, Atalanta, the 2024 Europa League champion, is among the big names in the tightest spot, having drawn 0-0 at home against Hapoel Tel Aviv and now settling the tie on neutral ground in Hungary. Meanwhile, Andorra could make its debut in a European league phase: Inter Escaldes hosts Kosovo's Drita with the tie level at 2-2.