UECL 2023 Bodø/Glimt - Lech match facts

Polish champions Lech Poznań's first post-Christmas European engagement for 12 years takes them north to face 2021/22 UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-finalists Bodø/Glimt in this season's knockout play-offs.

The Norwegian side return to the competition after finishing third behind Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven in their UEFA Europa League group during the autumn, their four-point tally in Group A the lowest of all eight teams that crossed over to the UEFA Europa Conference League, where Lech continue after finishing runners-up in Group C to Villarreal.

Previous meetings

The clubs have never previously met in UEFA competition.

Bodø/Glimt's lone previous contest with Polish opposition came in last season's UEFA Champions League first qualifying round, defeats in both legs against Legia Warszawa (2-3 h, 0-2 a) sending them into the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Lech have won both of their previous ties against Norwegian clubs, overcoming Fredrikstad (6-1 a, 1-2 h) in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round and Haugesund (2-3 a, 2-0 h) in the competition's second qualifying round in 2017/18.

Form guide

Bodø/Glimt

Champions of Norway for the second successive season in 2021, Bodø/Glimt also made big waves in Europe last term, their marathon continental campaign lasting 20 matches, 18 of them in the UEFA Europa Conference League, where they travelled all the way to the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated (2-1 h, 0-4 a) by a Roma side they had sensationally defeated 6-1 at home in the group stage.

Kjetil Knutsen's side played eight UEFA Champions League qualifying matches last summer, defeating KÍ, Linfield and Žalgiris Vilnius before going out in extra time of the play-offs against Dinamo Zagreb (1-0 h, 1-4 a). Their maiden UEFA Europa League group stage participation began with a 1-1 draw at PSV and a 2-1 home win against FC Zürich, but they lost all of their four subsequent fixtures, ending up with just one point more than the fourth-placed Swiss champions.

Bodø/Glimt had won 14 consecutive European home games before losing 0-1 to Arsenal on Matchday 4, after which they went down again, 1-2 to PSV, on Matchday 6. That run of victories included all nine matches at Aspmyra in last season's UEFA Europa Conference League, in which they scored 23 goals and conceded four.

Lech

Absent from Europe last season, Lech were triumphant on the domestic front in the year of their centenary, winning an eighth Polish league title – their first since 2014/15, when they were also led by 2021/22 Ekstraklasa-winning head coach Maciej Skorża, who was subsequently replaced by John van den Brom.

The Dutchman's first European engagement with the club brought elimination from the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round by Qarabağ, but he subsequently steered Lech through three UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying ties – against Dinamo Batumi, Víkingur Reykjavík and F91 Dudelange – to earn the club a fifth participation in European group stage football. The Polish club beat already confirmed group winners Villarreal 3-0 at home on Matchday 6 to reach nine points and take the runners-up spot ahead of Hapoel Beer-Sheva (0-0 h, 1-1 a) and Austria Wien (4-1 h, 1-1 a) and are competing in the springtime knockout phase of a European competition for only the third time, their previous two ties at this stage having both ended in defeat.

Lech have failed to win any of their seven European away games this season, the 1-1 draw in Austria on Matchday 5 stretching their winless run on the road in continental competition to ten matches (D4 L6) – though they did win three in a row before that sequence.

UEFA Europa Conference League squad changes

Bodø/Glimt

In: Faris Pemi Moumbagna (Kristiansund), Adam Sørensen (Lyngby), Joel Mugisha (Lorient, loan)
Out: Nikita Haikin (Bristol City), Marius Høibråten (Urawa Red Diamonds), Anders Konradsen (retired), Elias Kristoffersen Hagen (IFK Göteborg), Alfons Sampsted (Twente), Japhet Sery (Brann), Ola Solbakken (Roma)

Lech Poznań

In: Dominik Holec (Sparta Praha)
Out: Artur Rudko (Metalist Kharkiv, end loan)

Links and trivia 

Norwegian winger Kristoffer Velde joined Lech in January 2022 from Haugesund, for whom he played five times against Bodø/Glimt, failing to record a victory (D3 L2) but scoring one goal. He has found the net six times for Lech in this European campaign, including three in the group stage. 

Lech's Mikael Ishak and Michał Skóraś both struck four goals in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage – one fewer than the competition's leading scorer, Artem Dovbyk of Dnipro-1.

Lech are one of six reigning domestic champions competing in the UEFA Europa Conference League knockout play-offs – along with CFR Cluj, Ludogorets, Qarabağ, Sheriff and Trabzonspor.

Bodø/Glimt, who ceded their Norwegian title to Molde in the autumn, and Lech are both playing their 15th European fixture of 2022/23, having each begun their campaign in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.