Celtic today found out they will play Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League knockout round play-off, in what many Celtic fans saw as a decent draw, although it may be a trickier tie than we initially thought.
Situated in the Arctic Circle, Bodo/Glimt are Europe’s most northerly top-flight professional football club. Much like when former Celtic manager Ronny Delia led unfancied Stromsgodset to the league title, Bodo/Glimt shocked Norwegian football by winning the past two top-flight titles, with the most recent success only confirmed on Sunday. It was as recent as 2017 when Bodo/Glimt weren’t even in the top tier of Norwegian football but have improved massively under Kjetil Knutsen in recent years.
This season has been their first taste of European group-stage football and has thrown up some impressive results including against Italian giants Roma, defeating Jose Mourinho’s side 6-1 at home and drawing with them in Rome. When I initially saw the draw I thought it was kind to us but looking closer at it the Norwegians will be far from a walkover.
Our centre back Carl Starfelt will know about Bodo/Glimt more than most within the Celtic dressing room having grown up in neighbouring Sweden, and he has kept a close eye on their rise from relegation in 2016 to back-to-back title wins.
Speaking to the official Celtic website, he said: “It’s a tough draw. I’ve some friends playing in the Norwegian League, so I’ve been following them and I know it’s a very good team that has done very good over the past two seasons.
“They like to play a bit like ourselves, with lots of possession and a very high press. They have a lot of energy and like attacking football, so it will be an interesting tie with both teams trying to dominate the ball.
‘They’ve had some good games in Europe against Roma, so it will be a tough game.’
“They have an artificial pitch, but I think that can suit us as in Scandinavia at that time of the year you play on either very bad grass or artificial, so I will take that option.”
One advantage of drawing Bodo/Glimt is that they will be only getting back into their pre-season when travelling to Celtic Park for the first leg in February. We know from our own experiences that playing important European matches during pre-season isn’t ideal and it can be easy to be caught on the hop.
Having helped Celtic claim 3 wins in the Europa League, which unfortunately wasn’t quite enough to keep us in the competition, Starfelt is excited to have more European football to look forward to after the January winter break. He said “We’re very excited to go into the Conference League
“It’s a new competition and you don’t know too much about it but you can see from the teams left that it’s a big one.
“We’re looking forward to it and hopefully we can progress as far as possible.”
