Bodo Glimt complete San Siro upset to reach Champions League last 16
Bodo Glimt beat Inter Milan 2-1 at the Giuseppe Meazza on Feb 24, 2026, completing a 5-2 aggregate victory that sent the Norwegian side into the Champions League last 16 for the first time. The result matters now because bodo glimt have already beaten Manchester City and Atletico Madrid in the group phase and have finished a home-and-away double over Cristian Chivu's Inter, underscoring a striking run of results against Europe’s elite.
Bodo Glimt at the Giuseppe Meazza
The second-leg win in Milan followed a 3-1 first-leg advantage, leaving Bodo winners 2-1 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate. In Italy the visitors weathered numerous first-half Inter attacks before taking control with two second-half goals. Jens Petter Hauge opened the scoring — his sixth Champions League goal of the season — and Hakon Evjen finished the second after a Hauge assist, making the scoreline emphatic enough to silence most of the San Siro crowd, including much of what remained in the Curva Nord.
Jens Petter Hauge's decisive contributions
Hauge, who had a two-year spell at AC Milan, was central across both legs: he had already scored in Bodo’s 3-1 win in the first match and capitalised on Manuel Akanji’s mistake to net the opener in Milan. He then set up Evjen for the second. Hauge’s six goals this season are the most ever by a Norwegian player for a Norwegian club in a single edition of the European Cup/Champions League, a statistic that helped define the tie.
Cristian Chivu and Inter Milan reaction
Inter, three-time winners of the competition and beaten by Paris St-Germain in last season’s final just over nine months ago, were left with a tie too large to overturn. Cristian Chivu fielded questions ahead of the match about the size of Bodo’s stadium and the club’s population; he pointedly challenged derisive treatment, saying "And you’re laughing too, eh?" and insisting that Inter respect their opponents. He praised what Bodo had done to Atletico, Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund and said the Norwegian project merited respect.
Historical significance for Norwegian football and European records
The qualification marks several milestones: Bodo/Glimt are the first Norwegian side to progress in a knockout-stage tie in the Champions League and the first Norwegian club to advance in the European Cup since Lillestrom in the 1987-88 first round. They are also the first team from outside Europe’s big five leagues to win four consecutive European Cup/Champions League games against opponents from those leagues since Ajax in 1971-72, a run that Ajax completed on the way to winning the European Cup that season.
Club identity, Arctic conditions and past European runs
The club is based around 70 miles inside the Arctic Circle and often plays home games in harsh wintry conditions on an artificial surface at the Aspmyra Stadium — features that have been highlighted as a leveller. What makes this notable is that Bodo’s run was not simply built on conditions: they shockingly beat Manchester City at home in the league phase and won away at Atletico Madrid as well. The fairytale arc traces back to 2021, when Roma suffered a 6-1 defeat in the Arctic Circle that left Jose Mourinho red-faced and prompted Paolo Di Canio to sneer, "They’re salmon farmers!" The ensuing years saw Bodo beat Roma twice in the 2021-22 Conference League, draw once and lose once in Rome during the quarter-finals, and then upset Lazio in the Europa League last year on the way to the semi-finals — developments that have shown the club’s competitiveness despite financial disparities and outside interest from clubs such as Milan, which signed Hauge after Bodo’s previous San Siro visit.
Next opponents and wider implications
Bodo will now face either Manchester City or Sporting in the last 16. Coach Kjetil Knutsen described the achievement as "a historical moment for Bodo and I think also for Norwegian football. " The club’s coach, the players who have returned from moves that did not work out, and the institutional continuity of the Bodo project have been credited with sustaining success. The timing matters because a run that began after a slow start — Bodo failed to win their first six league phase games and needed results against Manchester City and Atletico Madrid to reach the play-offs — has now culminated in a landmark knockout victory that reshapes perceptions of clubs outside the wealthier European leagues.
It has been five years since Bodo made a name for themselves in Italy, and this tie underlined how a clear set of ideas, a "healthy project, " and on-field execution combined to produce one of the competition’s most unlikely progressions. This has been a season of ups and downs for Inter, but for Bodo Glimt the win confirms a sustained pattern of upsets at the highest level of European competition.
