FC Twente knocked out of the Europa League by Bodø/Glimt after dramatic match in Norway
FC Twente was knocked out of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday after a bizarre and dramatic match in Bodø, Norway, against Bodø/Glimt. The match finished 5-2 after extra time. This included two goals from Bodø/Glimt and one goal from Twente in injury time as well as a total of three own goals.
Twente manager Joseph Oosting went with Ricky van Wolfswinkel in the striker position. The 36-year-old was preferred to Sam Lammers, who had scored a beautiful goal in the Tukkers 2-0 win over RKC Waalwijk last weekend.
Oosting’s side almost went behind in the opening stages. A corner by Patrick Berg was headed toward goal by Jostein Gundersen. This was stopped by a fantastic save from Lars Unnerstall before another dangerous cross from Berg was headed out by Van Wolfswinkel at the second post.
Berg’s crosses were causing a lot of danger as Gundersen came close to scoring once more from the midfielder’s corner. Again, Unnerstall was in the way.
Despite the dominance from the home team, Twente went into halftime with a 0-1 lead. A corner by Michel Vlap was deflected into the goal by Bodø/Glimt right-back Fredrik Sjøvold.
The game got more difficult for Twente in the 56th minute. Gustaf Lagerbielke gave away a penalty after an unnecessary and clumsy tackle. The penalty was taken and scored by Kasper Høgh to reduce the deficit to one goal.
Lagerbielke had the chance to make up for his error in the 72nd minute when the center-back was found at the back of the six-yard box. However, his header hit the post.
Bodø/Glimt got the equalizer in the second minute of injury time. It was the second own goal of the match as Brice Wenbangomo’s cross was knocked into the Twente goal by Mees Hilgers.
It got even worse for Oosting’s side as Wenbangomo followed up his assist with a dramatic goal in the fourth minute of injury time. The crowd in the Aspmyra stadium was celebrating wildly as the right back hit a high shot over Unnerstal.
But this crazy added time period was not over yet. Just when the home team was getting ready to celebrate their win, Sem Steijn bundled the ball home from close range after a goalmouth scramble to send the traveling Twente fans into wild celebrations and send the match to extra time.
As mentioned before, Berg’s corners were causing a lot of danger, and they resulted in a goal in the 21st minute of the 30-minute extra time period. The corner was headed downwards to Sondre Brunstad Set, who hooked it towards goal. It seemed initially like Steijn had cleared the ball, but the referee’s goalline technology watch signaled that the ball had crossed the line.
Twente already seemed defeated, but it was confirmed two minutes later. It was the third own goal of the game as Twente substitute Arno Verschueren deflected the ball into the net to make it 5-2 on the night and 6-4 on aggregate.
Oosting’s side will now focus all their attention on their Eredivisie campaign this season. Twente is currently sixth in the Eredivisie table. They face NEC Nijmegen on Sunday.
