The opponent of Sporting in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 has been determined. The draw, held on Friday morning in Nyon, Switzerland, revealed that the lions will face the surprising Bodo/Glimt, a Norwegian team that qualified for this stage via play-off, where they eliminated the overwhelming favorite Inter with a total score of 5-2 over two legs (3-1 in Norway and 2-1 in Milan). This will be the first time Sporting faces Bodo/Glimt, a team that has already made its mark on Portuguese football three times, one of which was indirectly. Let's start with that one, which first brought attention to this small (and increasingly larger) Norwegian team: in October 2021, during the group stage of the Europa League, Bodo/Glimt shocked the world by thrashing José Mourinho's Roma 6-1! Later, at the Olympic Stadium in the Italian capital, they achieved another feat with a 2-2 draw. For the emblem of the northernmost city in the Champions League, located within the Arctic Circle, the duel with Sporting will be their third recent encounter with Portuguese teams, and the record (attention, lions!) is entirely favorable to Bodo/Glimt. In their debut in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League 2024/2025, they hosted and defeated FC Porto 3-2 on September 25, 2024, and less than a month later (on October 23), they went to Braga and defeated the Minho warriors 2-1. While Bodo/Glimt represents a debut for the lions, the same cannot be said for encounters between Sporting and Norwegian clubs. In fact, this will be the fourth Norwegian emblem to face the green and whites in history, following the unforgettable (for bad reasons) Viking in the UEFA Cup 1999/2000, which shocked Sporting fans with a 3-0 victory in the first leg of the first round, a result that Sporting could not overturn in the second leg, winning only 1-0 at Alvalade. Before this confrontation, there was a Sporting-Lyn match in the Cup Winners' Cup 1971/72, with two Portuguese victories (4-0 at Alvalade and 3-0 in Norway), and after that (the last duel between the lions and Norwegians), there was a double encounter in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League 2019/20 with Rosenborg, also with a double victory for Sporting (1-0 at home; 2-0 away).
Sporting Known The remains central to this story.
Sporting Known The remains central to this story.
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