Bodo/Glimt 0 Tottenham 2 (1-5 agg): Spurs keep Postecoglou trophy hopes alive with convincing win to set up Man Utd final
TOTTENHAM proved they are no Arctic flunkies to put Ange Postecoglou 90 minutes from delivering on his second-season trophy boast.
After a dark and dismal league campaign where they have been dreadfully off-key, Spurs snapped out of it in a place where the sun hardly ever goes down at this time of year.
They successfully avoided slipping up on Bodo/Glimt’s plastic pitch that has caused numerous European big names to suffer stage fright this season.
A masterclass in time-wasting and the most un-AngeBall display ever eased the tension, before Dominic Solanke struck just after the hour.
If that had not killed off Glimt’s glimmer of hope, Pedro Porro’s fluke cross-shot dropping in at the far post shortly afterwards surely did.
Now, Spurs are through to their first major European final since finishing Champions League runners-up to Liverpool in Madrid in 2019.
Just like that showpiece six years ago, it will be back to Spain to face English opposition again, only this time Manchester United in Bilbao.
Given they have already beaten the Red Devils THREE times this term, it gives Postecoglou a terrific chance to make good on his bold September claim that he “always wins things in his second season”.
That possible feat may still not be enough to save his job, after a woeful Prem campaign where NINETEEN league defeats have plummeted Spurs to 16th.
But it would qualify the club for the Champions League, end its barren silverware run of 17 years and hand Postecoglou his crowd-pleasing moment that will be remembered forever.
And after the season he has had, there would be a certain romance in that.
Coldplay’s Yellow was one of the hosts’ tunes of choice in the build-up for obvious reasons, given their kit colour.
The stadium energy, which Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen said his side would feed off, grew as kick-off approached, to the sound of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ and ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC.
The bouncing army of blond-clad fans, packed into this tiny ground with League Two vibes, belted out songs of praise for their team as hoses drenched the synthetic surface.
It was a tactic designed to get the ball zipping along quicker than on grass which had caught out the likes of Porto, Olympiakos and Lazio already this term.
Postecoglou himself had had his own grim experience up north in Norway when losing to Bodo in the Europa Conference League with Celtic three years ago.
But here, because of late driving rain, the extra water seemed to have the opposite effect and slow the ball down.
Had his Spurs team frozen this time, Postecoglou would have returned to England well and truly out in the cold with regards his job prospects.
But his team looked switched on from the off, taking a similarly low-risk approach to how they handled the away leg in Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals.
For that game, they needed to win away from home soil, but here they knew they could even lose by a goal and they would still get through.
That was thanks to a convincing 3-1 lead last week from the home leg where the only downsides were Bodo’s late lifeline strike and a season-ending injury to James Maddison.
Postecoglou’s men looked to slow the game down at every opportunity, with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario constantly reinforcing the tactic and eventually being booked for it.
It limited the hosts to a few opportunities, and in truth, Spurs looked comfortable.
Barring Ole Blomberg firing into the side-netting and a Kasper Hogh header over, the hosts rarely looked like scoring in the first half.
Porro came within a whisker of a crucial opener from a central free-kick just outside the D, but was denied by Nikita Halkin’s acrobatic save.
Knutsen’s side had to step it up after the break and went close with a few dangerous crosses – but it was nowhere near enough.
And when Solanke finished off Cristian Romero’s knock-down from sub Mathys Tel’s corner, it looked game over.
It certainly was when Porro’s cross somehow went in off the post six minutes later.
For all of Postecoglou’s poor results this season, his record against Manchester United reads: Played five, won four, drawn one.
Self-doubting Spurs fans have already noted that fact and claimed it would be very Tottenham to then come unstuck against Ruben Amorim’s side in Bilbao.
It certainly would do nothing to shake off their unwanted Spursy tag.
But the fact is, taking on the worst United side in living memory offers an unbelievable chance to seal European glory for the first time since they clinched this competition in 1984.
Who would have thought that after everything they have been through this term, they could still end it singing, “We are the Champions.”
Postecoglou, to be fair. He did call it.