Under the lights at Lyse Arena, Viking Stavanger found a late answer to Bayern Munich and turned a Champions League night into one the south-west Norwegian port city will not quickly forget. The Norwegian champions drew 3-3 with Bayern on Tuesday, scoring their equaliser in the 90th minute.
Key takeaways
- Viking Stavanger held Bayern Munich to a 3-3 draw, with the decisive late goal arriving in the 90th minute.
- The club reached this Champions League campaign by beating Dinamo Zagreb 2-2 and 3-1 in qualifying.
- Viking are jointly leading Norway’s title race with Bodø/Glimt, 14 points clear of third place with eight rounds remaining.
- Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim and Morten Jensen share coaching duties in an equal two-man management structure.
- Defender Gianni Stensness opened the scoring against Bayern, while several Viking players bring senior international experience.
A long-awaited European return
The Bayern draw marked Viking’s return to Europe’s leading club competition after a long absence. The Stavanger side had previously appeared eight times in the European Cup era, most recently in 1992, when Barcelona eliminated them after a 0-0 result was followed by a 1-0 defeat.
Viking booked their latest place in the Champions League through a qualifying tie against Dinamo Zagreb, drawing the first match 2-2 before winning 3-1. Their current run follows the club’s 2025 Norwegian championship, their ninth national title and their first since 1991.
The club, founded in 1899, enjoyed its strongest earlier spell during the 1970s, winning six league crowns between 1972 and 1982. Their revival has also placed them in a close domestic battle with Bodø/Glimt, the champions in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. The two teams are level on points at the top, with a 14-point gap back to the side in third.
Two coaches and an international core
Viking’s most unusual feature is on the touchline. Rather than appointing one head coach, the club is led jointly by Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim, 51, and Morten Jensen, 45, with neither operating above the other.
Aarsheim is a former Viking player who spent most of his playing career with the club and reached the Norway national team in 2001. Jensen played largely below the top levels before moving into coaching. Their partnership began around a decade ago, when both were working with semi-professional sides: Aarsheim was employed by a bank and Jensen by an oil company.
The pair later joined the staff of Bjarne Berntsen at Viking. When the role became vacant at the end of 2020, they proposed taking charge together, a model that has now carried the club from a domestic title race to a memorable meeting with Bayern.
There are no major global names in the squad, but Viking do have players with experience on the international stage. Centre-back Henrik Falchener, 23, featured for Norway at the latest World Cup, appearing in the final group match against France, a 4-1 defeat. Forward Erik Botheim, 26, was called up during Norway’s most recent international window but did not play.
Stensness, the 27-year-old defender who struck Viking’s first goal against Bayern, has won two caps for Australia. Midfielder Joe Bell, also 27, played three matches for New Zealand at the most recent World Cup. Their presence gives Viking a useful edge, but Tuesday’s result was built above all on the collective strength of a side managed by two friends sharing one job.
