Champions League shock at the San Siro: how Bodø/Glimt’s upset reshapes Inter, players and the last-16 picture

Who feels the impact first? Inter Milan — their coach, key players and title momentum — but also Bodø/Glimt, whose unexpected progress rewrites their season and the Champions League last-16 draw. Bodø/Glimt beat Inter Milan both home and away to prevail 5-2 on aggregate, reaching the last 16 for the first time and turning a tie that once seemed comfortable for the Italians into one of the competition’s biggest upsets.

Immediate fallout: Inter’s season, selection and reputation

Inter go out of the knockout play-off despite dominating stretches of the tie; they finished the second leg with 30 shot attempts and seven shots on target but managed only one goal. That single goal was not enough to overturn the 3-1 deficit from the first leg, and Inter — last season’s Champions League runners-up, three-time winners of the competition and currently 10 points clear at the top of Serie A — are eliminated. The loss exposes consequences for Cristian Chivu’s side: selection choices, injury management and the pressure on Chivu as manager will intensify.

Champions League implications: who Bodø/Glimt could face and why it matters

Bodø/Glimt will advance to the Round of 16 and will face either Manchester City or Sporting once Friday’s draw determines the pairing. The Norwegian club remain in their off season at home but have built a reputation for results against the odds during their Champions League debut campaign: they beat Manchester City and Atlético Madrid in the group phase and added Inter to that list with a 3-1 win in the first leg. The club has played five matches — all in the champions league — since the Eliteserien ended in late November, a condensed run that now includes a first-ever last-16 berth.

How the tie turned: key moments and match specifics

Inter dominated early periods but could not convert pressure into a first-half goal. The match swung in the second half. In the 58th minute Manuel Akanji lost possession to Ole Didrik Blomberg; Blomberg drove into the box and saw his shot saved by Yann Sommer, only for Jens Petter Hauge to volley home the rebound. That goal was Hauge’s sixth Champions League goal this term — the most by a Norwegian player for a Norwegian club in a single edition of the competition — and he had already scored in both legs against Inter. Håkon Evjen then added a strike (reported in context as around the 72nd minute) to make it 2-0 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate. Alessandro Bastoni later pulled one back for Inter, but the aggregate score finished 5-2 in Bodø/Glimt’s favour.

Goalkeeper Nikita Haikin was busy throughout: he made two early crucial saves, tipping over Federico Dimarco’s curling strike and keeping out Davide Frattesi’s goalbound effort, which helped the visitors repel the barrage of attacks from the home side. Some Inter players dropped to the floor after Hauge’s second-half strike, sensing how the match had slipped away.

Team news, personnel and pre-match context that mattered

Before the second leg, Inter faced a 3–1 deficit to make up when they welcomed Bodø/Glimt to the San Siro. The preview context noted that when Antonio Conte was appointed Inter boss in 2019 he aimed to change the club’s image, and that Cristian Chivu’s side would have to handle the chaos posed by Kjetil Knutsen’s visiting team. Inter’s captain, Lautaro Martínez, had picked up a calf injury in the first leg: he could recover quicker than expected but was not available for Bodø’s visit. Marcus Thuram was expected to partner Pio Esposito up front; Federico Dimarco — unused in the Arctic Circle first leg — was set to start the second leg. Piotr Zieliński was positioned to operate at the base of midfield in Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s absence, while Nicolo Barella returned after missing a recent 2-0 victory over Lecce.

Other knockout outcomes and the changing Round-of-16 map

• Newcastle beat Qarabağ 9-3 on aggregate (6-1 first leg, 3-2 second) and will next face either Barcelona or Chelsea.
• Atlético Madrid advanced 7-4 on aggregate over Club Brugge; Alexander Sørloth scored a hat trick and USMNT midfielder Johnny Cardoso netted a notable golazo. Atlético will meet either Liverpool or Tottenham next round.
• Bayer Leverkusen progressed after protecting a 2-0 first-leg lead against Olympiacos and will face either Arsenal or Bayern Munich.

Short timeline of the tie

• First leg: Bodø/Glimt won 3-1 (match played in the Arctic Circle).
• Second leg at the San Siro: goalless first half; Hauge volleyed a rebound after a 58th-minute sequence; Evjen struck later to extend the aggregate lead; Bastoni scored a consolation.
• Aggregate finish: Bodø/Glimt 5, Inter Milan 2 — Bodø/Glimt advance to the last 16 for the first time.

The real question now is how Inter will respond domestically and in squad planning, and whether Bodø/Glimt can carry this momentum into a Champions League knockout round against either Manchester City or Sporting.

What’s easy to miss is that Jens Petter Hauge’s two-goal contributions across both legs — including his sixth goal of the campaign — are a central reason this result now stands among the competition’s unexpected upsets.

Here’s the part that matters: Friday’s draw will convert this shock into a matchup that defines how long Bodø/Glimt’s extraordinary run continues; the draw will also determine the scale of the challenge awaiting the Norwegians in the last 16.