GENEVA — The Champions League’s feel-good story Bodø/Glimt will be back for a second season and Sabah of Azerbaijan will debut just nine years after being formed.
Celtic and LASK were in extra time tied at 4-4 on aggregate after the Austrian champion stunningly fought back from a four-goal deficit with a stoppage time leveler. On Tuesday, Dutch newcomer NEC lost 3-0 as the latest visitor to the Arctic Circle suffering on the artificial turf inside Glimt’s tiny Aspmyra Stadium. The aggregate score was 6-1. Sabah was created in 2017 and exactly nine years later will debut in the Champions League’s main competition after a dramatic qualifying playoffs win. Sabah was just seconds from elimination against the Israeli champion, which won the first leg 2-1 last week, when substitute Tellur Mutallimov scored in the last minute of stoppage time to force extra time. Sabah’s Gabon striker Orphe Mbina then scored with a header in the 101st minute and Joy-Lance Mickels added on in the 115th to make it 5-2 in the second leg and 6-4 on aggregate score.
Bodø/Glimt eased through the second leg of its qualifying playoff Tuesday against NEC Nijmegen and Sabah denied Hapoel Beer-Sheva in extra time after a last-gasp goal in regulation time to level the aggregate score. Bodø/Glimt’s storied series of wins in January and February against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan make the Norwegian fishing town team seem like a Champions League veteran compared to Sabah.
