Travelling to another country to play football is always a challenge. Tiredness from the trip, different conditions, unknown venues, different climates or hostile crowds – all sorts of factors could spoil your day. Tonight, Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia will surely be longing for home.🟡 Ola Solbakken’s brilliant first-time finish 🤩Bodø/Glimt will secure a top-two finish in Group C with a win on Matchday 5 📈 Will they book their spot?@Glimt | #UECL pic.twitter.com/QR8mIfBMmU— UEFA Europa Conference League (@europacnfleague) November 24, 2021 The club founded by the Bulgarian communist army after World War II has dominated football in that Eastern European country since, winning a record 31 national titles and 21 cups. But they’ve done it in a mild climate, where the temperature drops below freezing for only a month or two – the months when there is a mid-season break anyway. Well, tonight they will play their UEFA Europa Conference League in around 10 degrees below freezing.CSKA Sofia head coach Stoycho Mladenov prepared his team as if they are leaving on a Polar Circle expedition.”The most important thing for us is to adapt quickly to the freezing conditions. We’ll be playing on an artificial surface that’s totally different to what we’re accustomed to. Our opponents are very strong but we are going to Norway to win.”Julestemning i Bodø, men ingen gaver foran eget mål til CSKA Sofia i morgen under treet (?) pic.twitter.com/b9jMHHEyAL— Lars Tjærnås (@Tjaernas) November 24, 2021 Bodo/Glimt drew attention to themselves last month with the awesome 6-1 thumping of Jose Mourinho’s Roma. If they could reproduce that sort of performance tonight, not even the Bulgarian Army would be able to stand up to them.Norwegian football journalist Carl-Erik Thorpe reckons that his compatriots are clear favourites tonight.”CSKA are not adapted to the Norwegian cold and that’s why Bodo will have the edge. The artificial grass surface also works in Bodo’s favour because the Bulgarians aren’t used to playing on such pitches.”These teams drew when they met in the reverse fixture in Sofia earlier in the season, but Bodo/Glimt want to win and secure the top spot with a matchday to spare. CSKA, meanwhile, have nothing to play for other than pride.🗣 “We want to take this fixture seriously.”Antonio Conte ensures that Tottenham will be taking the Europa Conference League seriously even though he will rotate the team pic.twitter.com/N25m7j71jh— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 25, 2021 In other games, Tottenham Hotspur travel to the tiny country of Slovenia to take on Mura, the team that’s won their first national title last term. In-form Bundesliga side Union Berlin are playing Maccabi Haifa in Israel and Slavia Prague host Feyenoord in a clash of half-and-half red and whites.UEFA EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUEGroup stageThursday18.30: (7.25) Flora (4.50) Partizan (1.50)18.30: (4.40) Kairat Almaty (3.70) Basel (1.88)20.45: (2.30) Slavia Praha (3.40) Feyenoord (3.35)20.45: (3.80) Maccabi Haifa (3.50) Union Berlin (2.10)20.45: (1.55) Qarabag (4.00) Omonia (7.50)20.45: (1.38) Rennes (5.20) Vitesse (9.00)20.45: (3.50) Slovan B. (3.50) PAOK (2.20)20.45: (22.0) Mura (9.00) Tottenham (1.15)20.45: (1.42) Helsinki (4.70) Alashkert (9.00)20.45: (19.0) Lincoln RI (8.00) Copenhagen (1.18)23.00: (1.17) Roma (8.50) Zorya (18.0)23.00: (7.75) Anorthosis (4.30) Gent (1.50)23.00: (1.20) Bodo/Glimt (7.75) CSKA Sofia (16.0)23.00: (2.40) Randers (3.30) Cluj (3.25)23.00: (6.25) Jablonec (4.10) AZ Alkmaar (1.60)23.00: (2.35) Maccabi T.A. (3.40) LASK (3.25)***odds are subject to change
