Key events
Sid Lowe saw Manchester United plunder a 3-0 lead from Bilbao, Athletic’s (joint) worst home defeat of all time in European competition:
Manchester United enjoyed their night in Bilbao so much that they will surely be coming back. They remain the only unbeaten team among the more than 100 that have played in the Europa League over eight long months, and even if they do fall to a first defeat in seven days’ time, they should be there on its final game in this same stadium, this season given meaning and potentially a triumphant end.
They came to the stadium everyone calls the Cathedral and defeated Athletic Club so convincingly that the second leg carries little threat. No one had won here this year in this competition and Athletic had conceded just 10 times in all competitions; United scored three in a quarter of an hour.
Much more here:
Some match reports! First, Jacob Steinberg saw Chelsea take a commanding lead against Djurgarden in the Conference League:
The partying in the stands was at odds with everything taking place on the artificial pitch. There was no irony about the celebrations from the noisy Djurgården fans when their team finally found the back of the net. The roar was deafening and the emotion was genuine. The only problem, though, was that Chelsea were already four goals to the good by the time Isak Alemayehu Mulugeta got the underdogs on the scoresheet in Stockholm.
It was not a great look for a competition that Uefa invented for the benefit of Europe’s smaller clubs. Chelsea against the 11th best team in Sweden for a place in the final of the Conference League? It was never going to be much of a contest. Chelsea played a weakened team but still headed back to London with a 4-1 lead after Enzo Fernández continued his impressive form by making early goals for Jadon Sancho and Noni Madueke before Nicolas Jackson came off the bench to score twice in the second half. The only disappointment for Enzo Maresca was Cole Palmer failing to end his goal drought.
Much more here:
The big questions after this game are: how are James Maddison and Dominic Solanke? Spurs got noticeably and instantly worse when they went off, and will want them on the pitch in Bodo next Thursday.
Bodo/Glimt’s home results in Europe this season. Only in the last two have they kept a clean sheet:
Bodo/Glimt 3-2 Porto
Bodo/Glimt 1-2 Qarabag
Bodo/Glimt 2-1 Besiktas
Bodo/Glimt 3-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv
Bodo/Glimt 3-2 FC Twente (5-2 after extra time)
Bodo/Glimt 3-0 Olympiacos
Bodo/Glimt 2-0 Lazio
Final score: Tottenham 3-1 Bodo/Glimt
90+5 mins: Kulusevski gets the ball to the left of goal, spins and shoots with his right foot across goal and … just wide of the far post. And that’s it!
90+4 mins: Tottenham’s 13th corner, Porro taking from the right, is headed away.
90+3 mins: Bodo have notably defended deeper this half, not giving Spurs that chipped pass over the defence for a forward to run on to. And without that, Spurs have struggled to create.
90+2 mins: An extended spell of pressure from the Norwegians ends with Vicario coming out well to claim a cross.
90+1 mins: Into the first of five minutes of stoppage time. Bodo are attacking in numers – another goal for them would transform this tie.
88 mins: Porro’s cross deflects behind, but Gundersen heads the corner away.
86 mins: Tel is playing at centre-forward now, with Odobert having dislodged him from the left, as Spurs attempt to reopen a three-goal lead.
GOAL! Tottenham 3-1 Bodo/Glimt (Saltnes, 83 mins)
Finally, the visitors have a shot on target – and it’s only gone in! A couple of nice passes to get the ball to Saltnes inside the penalty area, and he cuts onto his right and has a shot that hits Bentancur’s boot and deflects over Vicario’s dive!
81 mins: Another Spurs corner. This one drops to Tel, whose shot was probably on its way in had it not first been on its way into Sjovold’s rear.
79 mins: Udogie gets to the byline, cuts infield, and then has a shot from almost no angle at all rather than trying to pick out any of three teammates waiting in front of goal. Haikin would have had to have completely abandoned his near post for that to go in, and he hadn’t.
77 mins: More substituting, as Bodo take off Fet and Blomberg and bring on Jensen and Sorli.
76 mins: Which is cleared. And Hauge is late into a challenge on Udogie, sending the referee back to his pocket.
75 mins: Bodo/Glimt, who have been doing most of the attacking in these last few minutes (without converting it into a shot) win their first corner of the night.
75 mins: Now Solanke is down, and feeling his left thigh. He’s being taken straight off, and Wilson Odobert is coming on.
74 mins: Romero gets booked for pretty cynically checking the run of a Bodo attacker. “As a presumptuous Spurs fan, I much prefer facing Man U than Athletic in a final,” writes Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo. “Losing to Man U would be more painful, but I also think Spurs have a better chance against them than against Athletic in a final in their own stadium.” This is surely right, though I’m not really a fan of same-country European finals.
72 mins: The ball pings and also pongs around Tottenham’s penalty area for a while, with a couple of defenders improvising backheeled clearances to stop Bodo/Glimt from having a third shot.
71 mins: That’s Tottenham’s 19th shot of the match. Their season high is 24, against Manchester United in September.
70 mins: … from which Romero heads a food wide of the far post!
69 mins: Bissouma does well to steal the ball inside the Bodo half. It runs to Solanke, whose shot deflects off a defender’s boot for an eighth Spurs corner.
66 mins: Bodo/Glimt have also made a second substitution, bringing Auklend on for Määttä.
65 mins: That substitution has now been made, and the game has restarted.
64 mins: Maddison is on the floor, and has been since the goal. He doesn’t exactly look in agony, but there’s clearly an issue with his right calf/knee/something in that limb, it’s not worth taking any chances and Dejan Kulusevski is getting ready.
GOAL! Tottenham 3-0 Bodo/Glimt (Solanke penalty, 62 mins)
Solanke takes his slow, stuttering run-up, and as Haikin takes half a step to his left, rolls the ball the other way!
61 mins: Solanke places the ball.
Tottenham have a penalty!
60 mins: Both players tried to volley a bouncing ball in the area. Romero got the ball, Sjovold got there second and made contact with Romero’s calf. There was no intent and not a huge amount of contact, but it was a foul.
60 mins: After Romero goes down the ball pings around a bit, ending with a shot rebounding off a defender into the referee, who stops the game. He’s now been called over to the monitor to have a look at that incident.
59 mins: Romero goes down inside Bodo’s penalty area after a coming-together with Sjovold, and I think Spurs might end up with a penalty here.
57 mins: Bjorkan earns the game’s first yellow card, for landing his foot on top of Johnson’s as he tried to poke the ball away.
55 mins: Gundersen goes down on the touchline under the most feeble pressure from Johnson. The referee gives the free-kick, and Johnson is a bit miffed about it.
54 mins: Another Spurs corner, which is headed clear to Udogie, whose deflected shot is gathered by Haikin.
52 mins: Tel wins the header from the corner, but doesn’t control it at all, and Bodo collect the loose ball and launch a briefly vaguely threatening break.
51 mins: A foul is rather generously given for a foul on Van de Ven on Tottenham’s left. Maddison takes the free-kick and this time Bodo do with the header, but the ball bounces behind for a corner.
48 mins: It was in fact a linesman who had pulled his calf, and he has now swapped roles with the fourth official. “Still second halves and second legs to play of course,” writes Gareth Beale, “but has it occurred to anyone that if the promoted teams had been just a little better we could have had the weird situation of an English team in the championship playing in the Champions League?”
46 mins: Peeeeeep! Finally, Spurs had the game restarted.
Now the rest of the players, and the officials, are coming out. Bodo are also going to make a substitution, bringing Brede Moe on for Nielsen.
The players actually haven’t come out – only Tel has. Apparently the fourth official has suffered a strained calf, forcing a delay while the officials reshuffle.
The players are on their way out for the second half, and Mathys Tel is among them. He’s coming on for Richarlison, who had a wonderful first minute but didn’t achieve much thereafter.
Half-timely scorecheck:
Premier League
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Brentford (65 minutes played)
Europa League
Athletic 0-3 Manchester United
Tottenham 2-0 Bodo/Glimt (obviously)
Conference League
Djurgarden 0-2 Chelsea
Real Betis 1-0 Fiorentina
Half time: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Bodo/Glimt
45+2 mins: Spurs have controlled – yes, you read that right – a half of football, scored two goals, and take a deserved lead into the break.
45+1 mins: Bodo/Glimt have a chance! Maatta beats Udogie on the right and crosses, Blomberg’s diagonal run from the left to the near post coincides perfectly with the arrival of the ball, and he volleys over from about eight yards!
45+1 mins: There’ll be about two minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half.
44 mins: Surprisingly the two teams have attempted and completed a very similar number of passes. Spurs have done almost all of the dangerous attacking, but they’ve been quite direct about it. Not a lot of extraneous passing going on.
41 mins: Another long ball out of defence for Spurs. Solanke profoundly outpaces a lumbering Gundersen to reach it first, but the defender gets back to block the shot.
39 mins: Save! Bentancur chests down a clearance and slams a volley from the edge of the area that was roaring into the net until Haikin turns it over the bar (I think Udogie took the ball out of play in the build-up, so perhaps it wouldn’t have counted).
38 mins: Spurs have now had 10 shots, three of them on target (I’m not sure those Bissouma volleys should count, mind). Bodo have had one shot, and it wasn’t on target.
GOAL! Tottenham 2-0 Bodo/Glimt (Maddison, 34 mins)
For the third time already Spurs play a high pass from their own defensive line – Porro this time – behind the Bodo defence. Maddison runs on to it, his first touch takes him wide of goal but forces Haikin to shuffle across, his positioning now uncertain, to cover him, and then he scuffs his shot, which bounces behind two covering defenders and inside the far post!
