Sporting Lisbon made an impressive comeback to hammer Norwegian giant killers Bodo/Glimt 5-0 on Wednesday morning AEDT and reach the Champions League quarter-finals 5-3 on aggregate.
After a 3-0 last 16 first leg defeat last week north of the Arctic Circle, Sporting produced a ruthless display in Portugal to book a spot in the last eight for the first time since the 1982/83 season.
Bodo/Glimt have drawn admirers across the world for their superb performances in this season’s Champions League but once Goncalo Inacio opened the scoring, the Portuguese champions never looked back.
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Pedro Goncalves and Luis Suarez netted to force extra-time and Maximiliano Araujo scored in the 92nd minute to put Sporting ahead for the first time in the tie, before Rafael Nel smashed home a fifth late on.
Bodo/Glimt shocked last season’s runners-up Inter Milan in the play-off round and defeated Manchester City and Atletico Madrid in the league phase before that.
Those astonishing results were followed up by the first leg rout of Sporting at the Norwegians’ 8000-capacity Aspmyra Stadium, giving Kjetil Knutsen’s side a tantalising sight of the last eight.
Perhaps it daunted them, as they seemed to be playing with fear from the start in Lisbon.
The hosts dominated, racking up shots at nearly the same rate the Norwegian side were completing passes in the opening phases.
Around 2000 Bodo/Glimt fans made the long trek to Jose Alvalade stadium, where their dream was mercilessly crushed under the rain.
Knutsen selected the same line-up for the sixth Champions League match running, a competition record. Rui Borges’s Sporting peppered the Bodo/Glimt goal, with Nikita Haikin saving from Colombian striker Suarez early on.
Kasper Hogh, who scored in the first leg, had a fine chance to send the visitors ahead against the run of play at the other end but dragged his shot a long way wide.
Former Barcelona forward Francisco Trincao’s effort was deflected off-target, but he helped create the opener with a corner. Inacio rose highest to nod home and start Sporting’s comeback.
Bodo/Glimt almost pulled back level but Odin Bjortuft headed against the crossbar, with the ball flying upwards and then dropping downwards onto the woodwork again, before Sporting were able to recover.
The Portuguese side forged their second goal just after the hour mark with Suarez racing in down the right and pulling the ball across for Goncalves to tap home.
The comeback was well and truly on and Suarez got in on the action himself with a penalty after 78 minutes, following a handball by Fredrik Andre Bjorkan.
Bodo/Glimt held on to force extra-time but after just two minutes of it Araujo fired home, drilling inside Haikin at the near post for Sporting’s fourth.
Sporting wisely kept control through the rest of the additional period and wrapped things up at the death when Nel rifled into the top corner.
CLINICAL PSG BURY CHELSEA
Paris Saint-Germain snuffed out any chance of a Chelsea comeback with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia among the scorers in a clinical 3-0 victory at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday which took the holders through to the Champions League quarter-finals 8-2 on aggregate.
The Georgian’s early opener was soon followed by a brilliant Bradley Barcola strike, quickly ending Chelsea’s hopes of turning around their 5-2 deficit from the first leg of the last 16 tie last week.
Substitute Senny Mayulu then fired in PSG’s third in the second half, as Luis Enrique’s men march on to a last-eight tie next month against either Liverpool or Galatasaray – the Turkish side go to Anfield with a 1-0 first-leg advantage on Thursday morning AEDT.
Chelsea has now lost four consecutive Champions League knockout games for the first time in the club’s history. It comes the Premier League handed Chelsea a record fine and a suspended transfer ban for hidden payments between 2011 and 2018.
“A tough night,” Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior told TNT Sports.
“We knew it was a tough ask.”
PSG’s dream of retaining the Champions League title remains very much alive, a year after winning the trophy for the first time in their history.
The Qatar-backed side’s comprehensive victory in this tie gives them revenge for their loss to the Blues in last July’s Club World Cup final, and indicates that they might be finding their very best form again at just the right time.
This was their fourth win in a two-legged knockout tie against Premier League opposition since the start of last year, but while that record is impressive, Chelsea looked a long way short of the level required in Europe’s elite club competition.
Liam Rosenior’s team never really appeared to believe they could come back from their collapse six days ago at the Parc des Princes, when they conceded three late goals to go from 2-2 to 5-2 down.
Their attention will now turn back to the fight to qualify for the Champions League again next season, after a miserable week in which two defeats against PSG have come either side of a loss at home to Newcastle United in the Premier League.
Robert Sanchez started in goal here, as he had done at the weekend, after Filip Jorgensen replaced the Spaniard and was at fault for PSG’s crucial third goal in the first leg.
PSG, meanwhile, gave a start to Kvaratskhelia after he came off the bench to score a late double in Paris which swung thetie decisively his team’s way.
The Parisians also made the trip undoubtedly feeling fresher after their scheduled weekend Ligue 1 game against Nantes wascalled off to aid their preparations.
Within six minutes here they were ahead as Mamadou Sarr — making his Champions League debut — misjudged a long kick downfield from PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov and Kvaratskhelia outmuscled the young Chelsea defender before beating Sanchez.
The second goal came on the quarter-hour, with Warren Zaire-Emery supplying Achraf Hakimi on the right and the Moroccan finding Barcola who controlled on the edge of the box before sending a superb strike into the top-left corner.
The tie was as good as over at that point, and home fans began flooding for the exits when the third goal arrived just after the hour mark.
Kvaratskhelia did the spadework this time down the left before his ball into the middle fell to Mayulu — the 19-year-old, who replaced Joao Neves at half-time, gave Sanchez no chance with a lethal first-time strike.
A miserable evening for Chelsea was then compounded when Trevoh Chalobah was stretchered off late on, leaving the hosts to finish the game with 10 men as they had used all their substitutes.
Chelsea were booed off by their home fans at half-time and after the final whistle.
“This has not been a happy place tonight,” Sky Sports’ Ron Walker said.
“Chelsea might not be the juggernaut they once were, but these fans do not take kindly to being outclassed on their own turf.
“The home sections of the Matthew Harding and Shed Ends are half full at best.”