Stale Solbakken Slams Sporting CP's 'Sabotage' Performance

Solbakken blasts Sporting's defensive lacking

Norwegian coach Stale Solbakken criticizes Sporting CP's performance, says 'it was almost sabotage'. Bodo/Glimt stun Sporting CP 3-0 in Champions League round of 16 first leg.

Sporting CP's top players rose to the challenge, but couldn't lift team to victory against Bodo/Glimt...

Norwegian national coach Stale Solbakken blasted Sporting CP's performance, saying they “became lightweights” and had two players who didn't do their defensive work up front, almost like sabotage. “Sporting have deadly attacking players who usually do the job for them. They became lightweights; they had two who didn't do the defensive work up front. It was almost sabotage,” he told NRK after the match.

Solbakken's criticism comes after Bodo/Glimt dominated Sporting CP 3-0 at the Aspmyra stadium in the Champions League round of 16 first leg. Sondre Fet, Ole Didrik Blomberg, and Kasper Hogh scored for the Norwegian side, who now hold a significant advantage heading into the second leg.

Luis Suarez and his teammates didn't quite have their usual spark, with the star striker covering just 9.2 kilometres throughout the entire match. In fact, three of the Sporting players who played the full 90 minutes didn't even crack the 10km mark. Meanwhile, Glimt's outfield players were on a whole different level, with all ten starters running over 10km - the Norwegian team collectively ran 123.5km to Sporting's 113.2km.

Coach Rui Borges wasn't pleased with the team's performance, admitting “We were far from where we wanted to be. It's tough for us” at the post-match press conference. The stats certainly backed up his claims.

Bodo/Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen took a more measured approach, avoiding the strong language used by Solbakken. 

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Another chapter in Bodø/Glimt's fairytale ✨#UCL pic.twitter.com/9OOXjccGgr

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 11, 2026

“No, I will not express myself like that. They have two incredibly good players, and we were given a surprising amount of space in the first half,” Knutsen said to NRK after the match.

Kjetil Knutsen gave credit to Sporting's top players, believing they stood out in the match. 

“I feel they put in more work in the second half and were a bit surprised by how solid or how good we were in our free play. That is exactly the scenario we have been working on a lot,” Knutsen said.