LONDON :Tottenham Hotspur put aside their woeful domestic season with a 3-1 home victory against Norway’s Bodo/Glimt leaving them within sight of the Europa League final on Thursday.
Brennan Johnson’s header after 37 seconds and a clever James Maddison finish put Tottenham 2-0 ahead at the break and Dominic Solanke increased their advantage just past the hour mark when he calmly converted a penalty.
The buoyant home fans were already dreaming of a likely all-English showdown with Manchester United in Bilbao on May 21 but there was a late twist as captain Ulrik Saltnes’s deflected effort gave Bodo/Glimt hope for next week’s second leg which will take place inside the Arctic Circle.
Bodo/Glimt are the first Norwegian side to reach a European semi-final and with home wins against the likes of Porto, Olympiakos and Lazio during their run this season they will still believe they can turn the tie around.
“I think it puts us in a good position. I thought the players were outstanding today,” Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said. “They scored the goal late, which doesn’t reflect our dominance in the game, but if we repeat that performance next week it’ll be enough for us to get through.”
Tottenham are on course for their worst Premier League season since 1993-94 with 19 defeats from 34 games leaving them in 16th place and Postecoglou facing an uncertain future.
They have not won a European trophy since the 1984 UEFA Cup and have no silverware since 2008 but former Celtic manager Postecoglou’s claim that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club, suddenly looks plausible.
Saltnes’s late reply subdued the mood and injuries to Maddison and Solanke that forced them off were a worry, but Tottenham have put themselves in a strong position.
“That’s just the way our season is going, nothing is straightforward. We wanted to take them (Solanke and Maddison) off, speaking to them both hopefully it is nothing too serious,” Postecoglou said.
In contrast to their chaotic Premier League form, Tottenham have picked their way through the Europa League in relatively assured fashion and impressed when beating Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 away to seal their place in the semi-final.
An expectant mood greeted kickoff and Tottenham made a dream start when Pedro Porro’s cross was headed back across the area by Richarlison and Welsh winger Johnson was unmarked to nod his header past Nikita Haikin.
The hosts were dominant and Porro was the architect again in the 34th minute with a long diagonal pass that Maddison controlled superbly before cutting back a shot that wrong-footed the covering defenders and crept in.
Bodo, missing several key players through injury or suspension, offered a glimpse of their threat just before halftime when Ole Blomberg volleyed narrowly over but they gave little for their travelling fans to cheer.
When Solanke, scorer of the winner in Frankfurt, tucked away a rather harsh penalty given after a VAR review it seemed Tottenham would venture north with a healthy cushion.
But they rarely do things the easy way and Saltnes’s shot, which deflected off Rodrigo Bentancur to beat Guglielmo Vicario, breathed new life into the semi-final with Bodo having a formidable record on their artificial pitch.
“It was really important for us (to score late on) and we have a big opportunity next week,” Bodo/Glimt midfielder Jeppe Jensen said. “It was a difficult game but we did well and we stuck together when it was difficult.”
