The Champions League‘s feel-good story Bodo/Glimt are back for a second season joined by two debutants, Sabah of Azerbaijan just nine years after being formed and — remarkably — LASK Linz of Austria.
Bodø/Glimt eased through the second leg of their qualifying playoff Tuesday against NEC Nijmegen and Sabah denied Hapoel Beer-Sheva in extra time after a last-gasp goal in regulation time to level the aggregate score.
LASK seemed all-but out after a half-hour Tuesday, trailing 4-0 on aggregate to Celtic who had taken a three-goal win from the first leg last week in Glasgow.
Still, LASK had already rained scoring chances on Celtic’s goal even before falling further behind and somehow only retrieved three goals of the deficit when the clock passed 90 minutes.
Then Florian Flecker’s close-range header forced extra time, during which the Scottish champion continued to implode.
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A fifth unanswered goal for LASK came in the 109th by Samuel Adeniran, who then had a penalty saved as the score stayed 5-1 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate. Celtic drop into the second-tier Europa League.
Four more playoff second-leg games Wednesday will confirm the final entries in the 36-team main phase.
Bodø/Glimt’s storied series of wins in January and February against Manchester City, Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan make the Norwegian fishing town team seem like a Champions League veteran compared to Sabah.
On Tuesday, Dutch newcomers NEC lost 3-0 as the latest visitors to the Arctic Circle suffering on the artificial turf inside Glimt’s tiny Aspmyra Stadium. The aggregate score was 6-1.
Any hope of a comeback effectively ended after three minutes when NEC goalkeeper Gonzalo Crettaz handled the ball outside his penalty area and was sent off.
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Sabah were created in 2017 and exactly nine years later will debut in the Champions League’s main competition after a dramatic qualifying playoffs win.
Sabah were just seconds from elimination against the Israeli champions, who won the first leg 2-1 last week, when substitute Tellur Mutallimov scored in the last minute of stoppage time to force extra time.
Sabah’s Gabon striker Orphe Mbina then scored with a header in the 101st minute and Joy-Lance Mickels added on in the 115th to make it 5-2 in the second leg and 6-4 on aggregate score.
Hapoel Beer-Sheva finished with nine players in a hard-luck loss after having led 4-2 on aggregate in the 61st when Israel national team right back Guy Mizrahi scored with a shot from outside the penalty area.
Defender Djibril Diop and midfielder Eliel Peretz both were shown second yellow cards in extra time.
No Israeli team has played in the main Champions League since November 2022, when Maccabi Haifa finished last in a group with Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
Sabah and LASK will join Italy’s Como as Champions League newcomers in the 36-team main phase draw Thursday.
UEFA will make the draw in Monaco to give each team eight opponents playing from Sept. 8 through Jan. 27.
