By Olukayode Olumuyiwa.
High above the Arctic Circle, in a town of just 50,000 souls where polar nights swallow the calendar and snow blankets everything for months, a football miracle has been unfolding under floodlights.
Bodø/Glimt have not played a league match since November 30th. The Norwegian Eliteserien shuts down for winter, leaving the defending champions to train in sub-zero temperatures while the rest of Europe’s big clubs grind through packed domestic schedules. Their only competitive football in 2026? Four UEFA Champions League matches. And they have won every single one—against Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, and Inter Milan… twice.
It is one of the greatest underdog stories in modern football history.
January 20 – Aspmyra Stadion, Bodø (8,016 fans packed into a venue that feels more like a community rink than a European coliseum)
Manchester City, the Premier League machine, arrive expecting a routine night. Instead, Kasper Høgh scores twice in three first-half minutes. Jens Petter Hauge curls in a third after the break. City pull one back and lose Rodri to a red card, but the damage is done: 3-1. The Arctic roars. Pep Guardiola’s side has been humbled by a club most of their players had never heard of six months earlier.
January 28 – Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid
Atlético Madrid, masters of the dark arts under Diego Simeone, take the lead through Alexander Sørloth’s header. No problem. Fredrik Sjøvold levels before half-time, and Høgh strikes again in the 59th minute amid defensive chaos. Final score: 2-1 to the visitors. Bodø/Glimt are through to the knockout play-offs. The entire football world does a double-take.
Then comes the two-legged epic against last season’s Champions League finalists.
February 18 – Back home in Bodø
Inter Milan are dismantled 3-1 in the snow. The Norwegians play with a joy and intensity that the San Siro giants cannot match.
February 24 – San Siro, Milan (70,441 stunned spectators)
Inter dominate possession and rain down 30 shots. Goalkeeper Nikita Haikin becomes a wall. Then, on 58 minutes, Manuel Akanji slips. Ole Didrik Blomberg’s shot is saved, but Jens Petter Hauge (a former Inter academy product, no less) volleys the rebound home. Pandemonium.
On 72 minutes Hauge turns provider, sliding a perfect ball for Håkon Evjen to finish brilliantly. 2-0 on the night, 5-2 on aggregate. Alessandro Bastoni’s late header changes nothing. When the final whistle blows, yellow shirts sprint across the famous pitch, arms wide, screaming into the Milan night.
Manager Kjetil Knutsen, the architect of this miracle, could barely contain himself:
“Can you believe it? A team from a small town up north… it’s unbelievable.”
Jens Petter Hauge, who has now scored six Champions League goals this season, simply said: “It sounds not true! But we are there, among the last 16 teams.”
Bodø/Glimt are the first Norwegian club ever to reach the Champions League round of 16. The first to win a knockout tie in the competition. In a single month they have toppled three of Europe’s aristocrats without playing a single domestic fixture. They have turned a theoretical 0.3% chance of reaching this stage into glorious, freezing reality.
Now they wait to discover their round-of-16 opponent—possibly Manchester City again, the very team they already conquered under the northern lights.
Football rarely writes scripts this perfect. A club from the edge of the world, playing only in Europe while their league hibernates, marching through the continent’s elite like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
This isn’t just a good Champions League story.
It is one of the best in recent memory.
And the fairy tale is still being written.
Next stop: the last 16. The Arctic is coming for more.
Galaxy Sports Production
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