GENEVA — The Champions League’s feel-good story Bodø/Glimt will be back for a second season and Sabah of Azerbaijan will debut just nine years after being formed.
On Tuesday, Dutch newcomer NEC lost 3-0 as the latest visitor to the Arctic Circle suffering on the artificial turf inside Glimt’s tiny Aspmyra Stadium. The aggregate score was 6-1. Sabah was just seconds from elimination against the Israeli champion, which 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. Leeds won at Nottingham Forest for the second time in four days, adding a 2-0 win Tuesday to the 1-0 victory in their opening league game Saturday.
Bodø/Glimt eased through the second leg of its 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. Ipswich’s Chile midfielder Marcelino Núñez scored twice late in the second half to seal the win.
Celtic and LASK were in extra time tied at 4-4 on aggregate after the Austrian champion stunningly fought back from a four-goal deficit with a stoppage time leveler.
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.
