Bodø/Glimt are two hurdles away from the Champions League group stage. If they progress to the last and decisive playoff, there will be a double match against either Bulgarian Ludogorets or Croatian Dinamo Zagreb.
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Bodø/Glimt are ready for the third qualifying round, where they meet Lithuanian Zalgiris Vilnius. The first match is played on Wednesday, but already on Tuesday the next round was drawn in Nyon, Switzerland.
There it became clear that the winner of Bodø/Glimt and Zalgiris will meet Ludogorets or Dinamo Zagreb in a potential playoff, which is the fourth and last hurdle before the Champions League group stage.
Bodø/Glimt will play the first playoff game at home at Aspmyra on 16 or 17 August, with return matches in either Bulgaria or Croatia on 23 or 24 August.
VG+ Sport shows the first match between Bodø/Glimt and Zalgiris on Wednesday evening. TV 2 will show the return match next week.
Both Ludogorets and Dinamo Zagreb have built up well with experience from games on the continent.
Bulgarian Ludogorets Razgrad was bought by local businessman Kiril Domuschiev – who according to Forbes is worth $1.9 billion – in September 2010. In May 2011, they were promoted to the Bulgarian top division for the first time in the club’s history, and since then they have won eleven out of eleven possible series championships.
Ludogorets have never met a Norwegian team in a significant match before.
It has also given them a number of opportunities in Europe. Twice they have made it to the Champions League group stage, while it has been the Europa League group stage on six occasions – most recently last season.
Croatian Dinamo Zagreb took part in the Europa League group stage last season, where they finished second behind West Ham and ahead of Rapid Vienna and Genk. In the first round after the group stage, Sevilla lost 2–3. In the 2020/21 season, Dinamo Zagreb went to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, where they also lost to a Spanish team. Then it was Villarreal who were too strong with 3–1 on aggregate.
In Croatia, they hold the record for number of league and cup championships with 23 and 16 respectively.
In 2019, Dinamo Zagreb won 3–1 on aggregate over Rosenborg in the Champions League playoff.
–The loser of Bodø/Glimt and Zalgiris will play a playoff for the Europa League group stage. The draw will take place on Tuesday at 13:00.
If you lose the Europa League playoff, you will enter the group stage in the Conference League. Bodø/Glimt is thus guaranteed at least a group stage in the tournament after which it was exited 2–5 overall for Roma in the quarter-finals last season.
Bodø/Glimt has failed Faroese KÍ Klaksvik and and Northern Irish Linfield with respectively 4–3 and 8–1 overall in the first two qualifying rounds this summer.
According to UEFA, you get around NOK 155 million to qualify for the group stage in the Champions League. In addition, there is NOK 28 million per win and NOK 9.3 million for a draw.
If you qualify for the Europa League, you are guaranteed around NOK 36 million, in addition to NOK 6.3 million for a win and NOK 2.1 million for a draw.
Rosenborg was the previous Norwegian team to qualify for the Champions League group stage in the 2007/08 season.
See more statistics for the Champions League on VG Live.–
