A EUROPA LEAGUE stadium was buried in snow just hours before kick-off in the quarter-final.
Bodo/Glimt host Lazio in their crunch clash in northern Norway – with a 5.45pm UK time start.
However, on the morning of the match, the entire pitch, hoardings, stands and surrounding area were completely covered in thick snow.
A video posted by Norwegian footballer-turned-pundit Jan Aage Fjortoft showed the extent of the snow.
The clip panned across from the corner of the 8,270-seater Aspmyra Stadion, with multiple inches of snow piled up on the pitch and footprints from a nearby TV truck.
Fjortoft joked: “Welcome to Bodo, Lazio.
“This morning…”
Temperatures in Bodo are set to hover around freezing for the first leg of the quarter-final.
And snow is forecasted, too.
But fans need not be alarmed of the Europa League match being called off.
That is because Bodo/Glimt’s pitch is made of artificial turf and has under-soil heating.
And the team of groundstaff were hard at work with tractors and snow ploughs to wipe the playing surface clear.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Gary Neville frantically shovels snow back ON to pitch as fans say Man Utd icon ‘doing his best to get match called off’” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6366706634112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]So the game should not face any issues.
Lazio finished top of the league phase of the competition and beat Viktoria Plzen in the last 16, while Bodo/Glimt saw off Olympiacos.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D112028%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]The winners of this quarter-final will face either Tottenham or Eintracht Frankfurt for a place in May’s final in Bilbao.
