Brann completed a shock away victory at Kuventrae Stadium, seeing off Odds 2:1 in the Round of 64 of the Norwegian Cup on Tuesday evening. The visitors had been down to a man for most of the contest after R. Vindenes gave them the lead in the 39th minute, but Odds pulled one back through K. M. Ingason just before the hour mark. S. Magnusson then struck in stoppage time to salvage what looked like a lost cause, and somehow held on for the win.
By then Brann had already lost their shape. The crowd at Kuventrae had been told to expect a routine cup tie — Odds were meant to be the class act here, sitting comfortably in mid-table while Brann had been struggling since the summer. And here's the thing: the visitors had barely looked like a team in their recent outings. Three defeats in five matches, including that embarrassing 0:2 loss to Start, and suddenly they were walking out away from a side that had beaten them 5:4 in April 2025.
The statistics tell the story of a game that should never have been so tight. Brann dominated possession at 77 per cent, threw 27 throw-ins against just 13, and recorded 105 attacks to Odds' 84. But the numbers mask what actually happened on the pitch — Brann played with seven men for 51 minutes after Vindenes' dismissal, and somehow managed to keep the game alive. Odds had just one shot on target all evening, and when they finally got one past the keeper, it was enough to force extra time.
To be fair, the visitors deserved their escape route. They saw the game out with the kind of desperate defending that comes from experience, and Magnusson's late goal was pure instinct — a half-volley that caught the Odds keeper off his line. The crowd fell silent, then erupted as the whistle went. Brann had survived, but not without looking like they were about to crumble at any moment.
The result means Brann advance to the next round of the Norwegian Cup, while Odds' cup campaign comes to an abrupt end. For a team that had looked comfortable in their recent 2:0 victory over Lysaker, this defeat does nothing for their confidence. Brann, meanwhile, have turned their fortunes around in the most unexpected fashion — and now they have a cup run ahead of them that nobody saw coming.