For Eirik Bjorno, Viking's chief executive, it was the first goal against Bayern Munich. "That was the moment," he tells Sky Sports. "You are preparing for wave after wave, maybe having a counter-attack or two, and then you score from the first corner." Erik Nevland, the Norwegian club's sporting director, preferred the second.
"You can always score early," he explains. "But that was something that we had never dreamed of. More than we could expect.
It was just a night for the history books." The third goal guaranteed that. Bayern had turned the game around with three goals of their own but Michael Olise was sent off and Viking seized the moment - their moment - to claim a draw on the night that Champions League football came to Stavanger. "It was the biggest game in our club's history," says Bjorno.
"The most important learning is that we can actually compete. We can actually cope with the tempo." Viking certainly did that, managing to upset the Bundesliga champions in more ways than one. Max Eberl of the Bayern board was so ruffled by Zlatko Tripic's part in Michael Olise's red card that the executive made headlines by describing the Viking captain as a "scumbag" afterwards.
"But he is our scumbag," says Nevland, laughing. "We love him." To understand just why the 48-year-old Nevland is enjoying this moment so much, some context is needed. The former Norway international left Viking to join Manchester United as a teenager and played for the club in the Premier League, later featuring for Fulham.
Follow Sky Sports on WhatsApp for the latest sports news, videos, features, analysis and much more But this is his club. There were four stints with Viking as a player but the love affair began much earlier. His mother even worked for the club.
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