Bodø/Glimt managed Kjetil Knutsen has expressed his anger at his side conceding early to Tottenham in their eventual 3-1 loss int eh Europa League semi-final first leg.
TV 2 cover comments from Knutsen today after Tottenham’s win, which left him fuming from the opening minutes.
Bodø/Glimt found themselves a goal down inside a minute at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, with Brennan Johnson opening the scoring in the first minute.
The away side did not recover from there, with James Maddison adding a second in the 34th minute and Dominic Solanke a third in the 61st. Ulrik Saltnes added a consolation goal in the 83rd minute to make the tie slightly closer for the second leg.
The goal was very much a consolation for Knutsen, though, who was left fuming by his side conceding so early.
“We are once again in an extremely difficult situation when we concede a goal after 40 seconds. It is completely unforgivable,” he said.
“You saw when Tottenham conceded, they were very disappointed and lost energy. If you ask me, we should have gone for the second goal, but I think we can take a lot of energy with us from this match, to the almost one.
“And it will be completely different for us at Aspmyra. We still have a chance. We are not favourites, but we just have to go for it. Hopefully, we can handle situations in the build-up game better than in this match.”
Knutsen will be hoping that the artificial pitch in his side’s stadium will play it’s part when Tottenham rock up for the second leg in a week’s time.
That pitch has proven to be a tricky one for several sides to navigate already in this year’s tournament, something Bodø/Glimt have taken advantage of to get to this stage.
There is, of course, no artificial pitch at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and Knutsen believes that ended up costing his side.
“For me, there is a difference between playing a match on grass and a match on artificial turf. In grass matches, we have to be closer in the duel game, so that we come out victorious,” he added.
“We lose too much in those types of situations, which irritates me a bit. The other thing is that we have too many ball losses. There are a lot of technical things.”
