Knutsen Criticizes Bodo/Glimt's 'Personal Mistakes' in Europa League Loss

Bodo/Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen blasts his team's 'unforgivable' performance in 3-1 Europa League loss to Tottenham. Read more.

Bodo/Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen expressed his disappointment and frustration after his team's 3-1 loss to Tottenham in the Europa League semi-final first leg. Knutsen had warned his players about the importance of starting strong, referencing their earlier match against Manchester United where a quick goal had put them at a disadvantage. However, Bodo/Glimt made the same mistake again, conceding just 38 seconds into the match as Brennan Johnson headed in a goal for Tottenham.

Knutsen described the team's defending as "unforgivable," highlighting his displeasure with the performance. The loss puts Bodo/Glimt at a significant disadvantage heading into the second leg, and they'll need a substantial improvement to mount a comeback.

“We put ourselves in an extremely difficult situation when we concede a goal after 40 seconds. That is completely unforgivable,” said Knutsen at the press conference after the match.

”Actually, we had good control of the match in the first half, however, we struggled a bit with their deliveries for the back of our defence and in connection with the first goal, I just got to say that we can't act like that in the box,” said Knutsen.

Bodo/Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen was highly critical of his team's performance after losing 3-1 to Tottenham in the Europa League semi-final first leg. Despite the tie being alive ahead of the second leg, Knutsen expressed his disappointment with the players' display in London.

“We depend on all players showing their best level. There were too many personal mistakes, we lost the ball too much, lose man-to-man duels, we just stood and watched the action,” Knutsen said, highlighting the areas that need improvement before the return leg in a week's time.

“There is an incredible amount of things to be learned from this match that we have to take home with us. There is a difference between artificial grass and grass, and some of this applies to us in the coaching team,” said Knutsen.

“It's just too simple and not good enough. There were many details where we weren't up to speed, I haven't seen them all, but we can only learn from that. We should be happy that we still have the opportunity (to turn the tie), when we go to Aspmyra in one week, because it could have been much worse.

“We get three key players back in Norway (Patrick Berg, Hakon Evjen and Andreas Helmersen), so we have more options to choose from which will make us more competitive than here,” he said.

Tottenham will face Bodo/Glimt in the return leg of their Europa League semi-final at the Aspmyra Stadium on May 8th. After securing a 3-1 win in the first leg, Tottenham holds the upper hand but knows a late goal conceded in London has kept the tie alive for Bodo/Glimt. Coach Ange Postecoglou expressed confidence in his team's dominance despite the late goal, saying, “We are in a good position. Players were outstanding and the performance was everything it needed to be.” The second leg promises to be an intense match as Bodo/Glimt seeks to capitalize on their home advantage and Tottenham aims to progress to the final.