EUROPA League
Mourinho in six-goal humiliation at Norway’s toothbrush club
Jose Mourinho’s Roma were humiliated 6-1 in the Europa Conference League on Thursday (Oct 21) at Bodo/Glimt, the Norwegian champions whose fans are famed for carrying giant yellow toothbrushes to games.
“It’s my responsibility, I chose to use these players,” Mourinho was quoted as saying by Italian media.
Roma captain Lorenzo Pellegrini described the defeat as an “embarrassment” and a “slap in the face”.
Bodo/Glimt, playing their 11th European game of the season, stunned the Italian giants who struggled in temperatures of two degrees on an artificial pitch just inside the Arctic Circle.
Erik Botheim scored a hat-trick for the Norwegians with captain Patrick Berg, Ola Solbakken and Amahl Pellegrino piling on the misery for Mourinho.
Bodo/Glimt won the Norwegian title for the first time in their 104-year history last season.
Their fans have become great curiosities in the sport for their habit of waving giant, yellow toothbrushes in the stands.
Carlos Perez scored a consolation goal for a much-changed Roma side who had won their first two games in Group C, scoring eight goals and conceding just one.
However, Mourinho would have had one eye on this weekend’s Serie A clash with Napoli who top the table in Italy with eight wins in eight games.
“If I had played the first team, someone might get injured, then we’d concede four or five goals against Napoli on Sunday and that decision would’ve been considered wrong too,” said Mourinho.
“The team that Bodo put out today had more quality than our second string.”
Roma skipper Pellegrini told Sky Sport Italia there were lessons to be learned.
“I can only apologise and get back on track stronger than before. We said what we needed to in the locker room and it remains there,” he said.
“Sometimes you need a slap to learn and we got a slap in the face today, one we fully deserved. We’ve got to make sure that we learn from this embarrassment.”
Mourinho’s former employers Tottenham also lost, going down 1-0 at Vitesse Arnhem in Group G.
Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo changed his starting line-up completely with the likes of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Cristiano Romero and Hugo Lloris not travelling to the Netherlands.
The second-string side were eventually undone by Maximilian Wittek’s 78th-minute goal.
“It was a tough match against a good team,” said Nuno whose team are third in the group at the halfway stage, three points behind leaders Rennes.
“The Europa Conference League is like this, there are always tough moments.”
-AFP
Four-times Europa League winner Unai Emery booked an astonishing sixth final in the competition as a manager on Thursday when his Aston Villa team swept aside Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their all-English semi-final.
The 54-year-old Spaniard has won three times with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016) and once with Villarreal (2021) – either side of a defeat with Arsenal (2019) – deservedly earning him the epithet “Mr Europa League” from some fans and media.
Now he goes to the 2026 final seeking a fifth title, this time with Aston Villa against Bundesliga side Freiburg.
“His track record speaks for itself,” said Villa striker Ollie Watkins, heaping praise on his boss as the man to guarantee Europa League success. “We need to go and win it now.”
Emery was delighted with how his team overturned a 1-0 deficit to Forest in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final to score four times at home and win 4-1 on aggregate.
“Now we have to look to the final,” he said, hoping that Villa will do “something fantastic” for their fans.
Though thrilled at Thursday’s win, Emery left the pitch quickly after the final whistle, pumping his fist a few times at the crowd before letting his players enjoy the moment with fans
He and his Villa side will be favourites at the Europa League final in Istanbul on May 20, but Emery was taking nothing for granted. “Of course German teams are so difficult, their coaches, their players are so good,” he added of the upcoming opponents.
-Reuters
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List of teams which have qualified for the next round of the Europa League after the league phase concluded on Thursday, ranked by table position:
Directly to the round of 16:
1. Olympique Lyonnais (France)
2. Aston Villa (England)
3. Midtjylland (Denmark)
4. Real Betis (Spain)
5. Porto (Portugal)
6. Braga (Portugal)
7. Freiburg (Germany)
8. AS Roma (Italy)
Knockout phase play-off places (seeded)
9. Genk (Belgium)
10. Bologna (Italy)
11. VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
12. Ferencvaros (Hungary)
13. Nottingham Forest (England)
14. Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic)
15. Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
16. Celta Vigo (Spain)
Knockout phase play-off places (unseeded)
17. PAOK (Greece)
18. Lille (France)
19. Fenerbahce (Turkey)
20. Panathinaikos (Greece)
21. Celtic (Scotland)
22. Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
23. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
24. SK Brann (Norway)
-Reuters
UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v RB Salzburg – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – January 29, 2026 Aston
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Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will not accept any away fan tickets for their Europa League match at Aston Villa next month, even if local authorities reverse the decision to ban their supporters, they said on Monday.
The ban followed safety concerns raised by British Police, who cited potential protests outside Villa Park, following demonstrations at Israel’s recent World Cup qualifiers in Oslo and Udine.
“From hard lessons learned we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context,” Maccabi said in a statement.
“We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future.”
Aston Villa announced the decision last week, saying they were following instructions from the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), who are responsible for issuing safety certificates for games at Villa Park.
West Midlands Police described the match as high risk, past incidents, including violent confrontations and hate crime offences involving Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters ahead of a November 2024 game in Amsterdam.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the announcement as “shameful”.
Villa are third in the Europa League standings while Maccabi Tel Aviv are 30th after two rounds.
-Reuters
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