Bodo return to Champions League, Azerbaijan’s Sabah deny Israeli Beer-Sheva

The UEFA Champions League’s feel-good story, Bodo/Glimt, are back for a second season, joined by LASK of Austria and debutants Sabah of Azerbaijan.

Bodo/Glimt eased through the second leg of their qualifying playoff on Tuesday against NEC Nijmegen, and Sabah, a club formed eight years ago, denied Israeli Premier League champions Hapoel Beer-Sheva in extra time after a last-gasp goal in regulation time levelled the aggregate score.

LASK seemed all but out after a half-hour on Tuesday, trailing 4-0 on aggregate to Celtic, who had taken a three-goal win from the first leg last week in Glasgow.

Still, LASK had already rained scoring chances on Celtic’s goal even before falling further behind, and somehow only retrieved three goals of the deficit when the clock passed 90 minutes.

Then Florian Flecker’s close-range header forced extra time, during which the Scottish champions continued to implode.

A fifth unanswered goal for LASK came in the 109th minute by Samuel Adeniran, who then had a penalty saved as the score stayed 5-1 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate. Celtic drop into the second-tier Europa League.

Four more playoff second-leg games on Wednesday will confirm the final entries in the 36-team main phase. The draw for those games is made on Thursday in Monaco.

Bodo/Glimt’s storied series of wins in January and February against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan makes the Norwegian fishing town team seem like Champions League veterans compared with Sabah.