When Viking FK ended a 34-year Norwegian title drought last year, it was days like these in the Champions League they were dreaming of. A visit to Aston Villa on Wednesday comes on the back of a remarkable 3-3 draw with Bayern Munich last time out, where Viking led 2-0 at half-time but then needed a last-minute goal to rescue a point. After that game, Viking captain Zlatko Tripic - who joined the club in the second tier in 2018 - told Norwegian channel TV2: "I could have played another 90 minutes.
I've waited 34 years for this." Tripic is one part of the Stavanger club's revival story - along with a rarity in modern football, joint head coaches. Former assistants Morten Jensen and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim both stepped up together in 2021 and led them to last season's title - while they are top again this season. The pair spoke to the BBC's Euro Leagues show last month before their Champions League debut.
Aarsheim, who spent the bulk of his playing career at Viking, said: "It's a special story. We were born Viking fans, we've been playing in Viking. "We were working together as assistant coaches and the dream job in managing Viking came up.
"We said let's do it together. It will be better and the chances to get the job will be better." In a recent interview with the Guardian, external he said: "For us, Viking is Barcelona. The players have to understand that we see Viking as more than a club.
In our heads, it's the best team in the world." Jensen, who was on Viking's books as a player but never made a first-team appearance, said: "If you dare sometimes to go against the strides then you can achieve great things. "If you're going to follow and do whatever everybody else does, maybe we become a poor replica. "So for now we're happily married here and we love working together." This is Viking's first time in a European group stage since the 2005–06 Uefa Cup.
Aarsheim said: "It's almost unreal. We talked about it, maybe you should go into the Conference League and learn there, then you go into the Europa League. And we just jumped into the best party ever so it's unreal." Jensen called their Champions League fixture list - which includes trips to Villa, Atletico Madrid and Napoli and the home game with Bayern - "the whole buffet".
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