As the minutes ticked down, Bodø/Glimt’s support broke out into a rendition of Venner, an earworm of a song by their much-loved celebrity fan Halvdan Sivertsen. The title means “friends”, its chorus the simplest but most glorious celebration of kinship and solidarity. “Every time we meet, we have a good time; we are friends for life, these are the good things to have,” it runs. The hordes in yellow have had plenty of opportunities to revel together on a European run with few parallels; by the end they could dream, however faintly, of a reunion to end them all in Bilbao.
What a curious occasion this ultimately proved to be, both teams’ fanbases legitimately feeling able to cheer at full time and everyone getting what they came for to some degree. Tottenham have one foot in a season-defining final, that much is clear, and it would remain the biggest European upset of the modern era if Bodø/Glimt overturn this deficit in their idiosyncratic Aspmyra Stadion. But the tie remains open and, for Spurs, this must count as a wasted opportunity to offer their faithful the most relaxing of voyages to the Arctic Circle.
