Sporting staged a stunning comeback to beat Bodø/Glimt 5-0 after extra time and reach the Champions League quarter-finals with a 5-3 aggregate victory in their last-16 tie.
Trailing 3-0 from the first leg in Norway, Sporting attacked from the kick-off and went ahead in the 34th minute when Gonçalo Inácio headed in from Francisco Trincão’s corner.
Bodø/Glimt struck the crossbar before half-time through Odin Bjørtuft’ss header, but Sporting scored again when Pedro Gonçalves swept in Luis Suárez’s cross in the 61st minute. The hosts levelled the tie when Suárez converted a penalty in the 78th after a video assistant referee review for a handball.
Sporting needed less than two minutes of extra time to score the fourth as Maxi Araújo slotted in, with the substitute Rafael Nel adding a fifth in added time, ending the Norwegian side’s fairytale run and sending the back-to-back Portuguese champions through.
“We always believed that, with the help of this amazing crowd, we would be able to make it,” Araújo said. “It was amazing, we put on a great effort and that paid off. I’m so proud of this group and happy to have helped give the fans a night to remember.”
Bodø had beaten Manchester City, Atlético Madrid and Inter twice in a remarkable run of results before comfortably winning the first leg against Sporting in Norway.
Yet, roared on by a raucous crowd, Sporting came flying out of the gate and fashioned 11 attempts in the opening 15 minutes but squandered three clear chances, with Trincão twice missing from close range and Gonçalves misfiring a volley as the hosts laid siege to the Bodø goal.
However Inácio’s powerful first-half header finally broke the deadlock and put Sporting on their way to what would become a remarkable turnaround.
