The green rectangle of plastic grass glistened without hint of the demons that are allegedly lurking and the Bodo/Glimt players Fizzes smoothly with arctic drizzle.
Around them, employees were busy adorning the Aspmyra Stadium with the final garnish for the biggest night, repairing UEFA branding in the right areas and TV cables around the simple stands.
Furthermore, the silence of a Norwegian fishing city where the day broke at 3 o'clock, the calls of the seagulls, the rumbling of a tractor that spreads rubber crumb over an artificial training pitch and the incidental fighter jet that tears through the air during a training exercise.
Little else was stirred in Bodo when Tottenham descended. The Champions League determined its two finalists in the midst of the trembling passion of the San Siro and Parc des Princes. There will be 80,000 in Old Trafford Willing Manchester United to beat Athletic Bilbao.
Here came the expectation with a small Scandinavian understatement. With yellow flags on display outside buildings, fluttering of lampposts, shown in the windows of shops and porches.
“It's a historic football match and we want the leading role,” said Bodo/Glimt -Baas Kjetil Knuting. His team trail 3-1 after the first stage, but a late goal in London fed hope and they have faith in the Aspmyra with his League two-atmosphere and capacity of 8,000. “We are at home, we have the city behind us,” Knutsen added.
Midfielder Jens Petter Hauge, who came to AC Milan from Bodo in 2020 and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt before he returned to his hometown club last year, said: “Wherever you are or who you meet, in the garage or shopping center, everyone is gone to it and everyone says they have tried tickets and it in it.”
Tottenham dominated last week and was worth their lead, despite the contempt of reactions after the Bodo Rechts-Back Fredrik Sjovold match who claimed that the attempts of the Premier League team to press them in mistakes were 'Ræva', which meant 'very bad' in his most experienced translation, and that he had better in the Dutch football.
Knutsen wiped it aside and put it down on Sjovold's 'inexperience' and yet it has become a talk point in Norway, where the feeling is that the team of Ange Postecoglou was nothing special and now without James Maddison is excluded with a knee injury he suffered in the first leg.
Bodo, with important players, including Captain Patrick Berg, believe that they are not out of this draw, especially if they first score in the Aspmyra, where the home record is so formidable.
In 10 home tires in this European campaign, which started in July in the Champions League qualifications, the Norwegian champions won nine, including victories against established clubs such as Lazio, Olympiacos, Twente, Besiktas and Red Star. Three years ago they defeated Roma 6-1 after switching off Postecoglou's Celtic.
The artificial pitch was criticized and cuddling hit back and said: 'We are in the first place a good football team. Like most teams, we are better at home than gone. The grass we have is what we play on. It is due to the climate. And the more you play on it, the better you get. At home we learned to trust ourselves over time. It is a good pitch and good players can easily adapt. '
The last time Tottenham played at an artificial pitch was in the FA Cup in Tamworth, when they needed extra time to abandon the fifth-layer opposition, and Postecoglou chose to use artificial surfaces on the training field before they traveled to Norway, and claimed that they were all different.
Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who did not play with Tamworth, said it was probably five years since he played one, but nobody seemed to be disturbed when they trained in Bodo last night.
“It's clearly different,” said Postecoglou. “Whether it is the pitch, the atmosphere, the circumstances, there are always challenges to overcome it, and we will do that.”
Spurs can take consolation of the victory in Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarterfinals and the knowledge that they have come closer to a first major trophy since 2008, and a ticket to get to the European Elite again.
And Postecoglou was not put off by former Arsenal -Baas Arsene Wener, now the FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, which claimed that the Europa League winners should not go in the Champions League as they have had the past 10 years.
“Spurs does crazy things to people,” Spotted Postecoglou.
'Put that club in every sentence and they all come out and try to reduce us as much as possible. Why was it not a problem before, but it is now?
'Last year Fifth did not get you in the Champions League and now it is. What does that mean? There are competition rules and it is not the first year. I have a lot of respect for Arsene, he is one of the legends of the game, but Spurs does crazy things to people, I love it. '
Predicted Spurs XI (4-3-3): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bissouma, Bentancur, Kulusevski; Johnson, Solanke, Richarlison