ROME (VG) (Roma – Bodø / Glimt 4-0, 5-2 overall) Ola Solbakken (23) was disappointed after Roma played Bodø / Glimt at the Stadio Olimpico.
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After a week of chaos and writing after the tunnel noise on Aspmyra, a heroic Rome went straight to the throat of Bodø / Glimt, who seemed uncomfortable and never got into the fight.
– It seems like we lower our shoulders too low, it seems like we are indifferent, says the Glimt player to Viaplay.
– It’s damn frustrating to watch. I feel like we are looking at the ground and hiding, he continues.
In an attempt to solve the problems, the Bodø / Glimt players gathered the team in a ring after both 1-0 and 2-0. When the third setback was a fact, however, they tussled the sluice towards the center line.
– It’s not good enough. Had we lost 4-0 and at least done our best … We talked about enjoying the experience. We did not do that today. We hid. It did not look like we would be out there, and we lose deservedly 4-0. There could certainly have been more.
– I do not feel that we lose 4-0 with dignity. I feel like we’re hiding and not standing up for each other. We play more individually than as a team. It is not Bodø / Glimt. I am left with a nasty and bad feeling, says Solbakken.
– Maybe it cost more than we wanted
At the post-match press conference, he spoke more about the disappointment.
– The European Cup matches here should be a bonus and a fun experience, but today it did not look like we had fun. That is the most disappointing thing – that it did not sparkle and that it is not the glow we have been so good at having in every single European Cup match. It’s the most disappointing thing we do not have today, he says.
The winger also admits that the commotion around Kjetil Knutsen in recent days may have been energy-losing.
– We have tried to put it behind us, or at the club, so that they have spoken out, but it has probably cost more than we wanted and what we have thought. I think we have been good as a group to acknowledge that and focus on what we can do something about, says Solbakken at the press conference.
Annoyed Knutsen: – Unreasonable
Coach Kjetil Knutsen was also interviewed on Viaplay. He watched the match from the stands with two policemen. He was not allowed to be on the field due to the quarrel in the player tunnel after the match in Bodø.
– There is talk of “fair play” and there are many things that are talked about. Their goalkeeping coach was allowed to be in the locker room, and be out on the warm-up. It’s so unreasonable, these rules, and the consequences of things. It is not possible to take it seriously. We learn from everything in life, and I can only shake it off, Knutsen claims.
– I think the consequences of things that happen should be investigated in a proper way, and then I believe that the consequences – if it has consequences – must be the same for everyone. To walk around here ix number of days with x number of policemen around me, it has been a new experience, I must say, says Knutsen – and repeats that “this breaks with my values, with the club’s values, with Norwegian sports values”.
In the absence of Knutsen, it was assistant coach Morten Kalvenes who led the team.
– There were no messages from Kjetil along the way. I do not know what the players talked about in the ring. The break was constructive and unifying. We had a hard time in the first half, and feared that the players would be more stressed and disillusioned than they were. We got to spend time on the backroom game Rome, which partly surprised us. It made us open in places on the field that surprised me, says Kalvenes at the press conference after the match.
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