Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt have insisted their decisions to go into a huddle at various points of Thursday night’s match against Celtic was not designed to wind anyone up.
Celtic famously do a pre-match huddle before every game, while Bodo/Glimt not only recreated that but also went into a huddle after half-time and after the Bhoys scored their goal.
For the Norwegians, it was less about antagonising anyone and more about their own collective team spirit, despite their actions being heavily booed by supporters in attendance.
Bodo/Glimt star Hugo Vetlesen explained to The Daily Record: “That’s what we do after every goal we concede. It’s about gathering the boys together and saying we have to be smart with what we do and we got a good response by scoring a goal.
“It was a hard game, but we knew we had a good intensity in our team and we work hard every day. We had a training camp in Spain for over a month.
“We have looked at this game, but we’ve been taking it step by step.”
I have to say, I also took this as a bit of antagonism from Bodo/Glimt. Not really out of judgement of them. I actually thought it was a smart bit of European gamesmanship.
If they say this is what they do on the regular then I suppose there’s nothing to read into it.
Regardless of their intent, they played the 90 minutes against Celtic perfectly and if their little huddle was a team bonding exercise after conceding then it certainly worked.
Hopefully Celtic can throw them off their game in the return leg next Thursday, with Ange Postecoglou’s Bhoys having it all to prove.
In other news, “Very strange”; Chris Sutton blasts Dundee ahead of Celtic clash.
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