What a difference a year makes. Or nine months to be precise.
Last season, Inter reached the UEFA Champions League final in style, with thrilling victories over Bayern Munich and Barcelona, but on Tuesday, the Italian giants limped out of the competition with a disappointing 2-1 loss at home to Bodo/Glimt — knocked out in the playoff round 5-2 on aggregate — in what is being labeled as one of the biggest upsets in Champions League history.
It was not the first major upset the tiny Norwegian team have pulled off this season after wins over Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, and a draw against Borussia Dortmund.
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“We know there’s a lot of competitiveness in the Champions League. If teams get to this stage it means they have something,” Inter coach Cristian Chivu said. “And they have proved that. They showed it against Dortmund, against Madrid, against City, against us twice.”
“It’s a team which has energy,” Chivu said. “We could have done better in Norway, we could have done better today, too, but unfortunately it didn’t go how we wanted. We gave everything to try to advance, that’s football.”
The signs were there last season that not all was right at Inter. The club reached the Champions League final, but were crushed 5-0 by Paris Saint-Germain. They also lost to AC Milan in the 2024-2025 Coppa Italia semi-finals and finished runners-up to SSC Napoli in Serie A that season.
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Coach Simone Inzaghi was replaced by Chivu, whose only previous senior managerial position had been a few months in charge at Parma.
The expected overhaul of an aging squad did not happen, with Inter making no serious outlay in the transfer market as they brought only Ange-Yoan Bonny, Luis Henrique, Petar Sucic and Manuel Akanji.
This season, Inter are 10 points clear at the top of Serie A and appear to be closing in on the domestic title, but they have struggled in the Champions League.
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The Nerazzurri got off to a great start in the continental tournament, winning their first four matches, but lost three on the bounce to finish the league phase in 10th, one point off automatic advancement to the round of 16.
“Bodo won both the matches, so they deserved to go through,” Inter midfielder Nicolo Barella said off the playoff defeat. “They didn’t put us in great difficulty today ... the most difficult thing was to score and we couldn’t.
“Of course, there is disappointment because our desire is to fight on all fronts. We tried, they were better. With one more point we would have advanced and would have saved ourselves this playoff but this is the new Champions League.”
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Inter needed at least two goals to advance, having lost the first leg 3-1.
The tiny Norwegian team won at the San Siro to seal a 5-2 aggregate victory in the playoffs and secure a place in the round of 16.
“Can you believe it?” coach Kjetil Knutsen said to TNT Sports. “A team from a small town up north. It’s unbelievable.”
Second-half goals from Jens Petter Hauge and Hakon Evjen stunned the home fans in Milan, and set Bodo/Glimt on course for a clash with City or Sporting in the next round.
Alessandro Bastoni pulled a goal back for Inter, but by then the damage had already been done.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid beat Club Brugge 4-1 — with a hat-trick from Alexander Sorloth — to complete a 7-4 aggregate win, Newcastle United won 3-2 against Qarabag (9-3) and Bayer 04 Leverkusen advanced 2-0 on aggregate against Olympiacos after 0-0 draw in the second leg.
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