Bodo/Glimt 3-1 Manchester City: Norwegian side prove superior on embarrassing night for Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola watched helplessly from the stands as Norwegian team Bodo/Glimt ran all over his Manchester City side. Perhaps City could give several excuses: the artificial pitch, the subzero temperatures the Norwegians were much more used to, an exhausted side having to travel to the arctic only two days after a hectic Manchester derby. But perhaps more realistically, Guardiola will reply as he did after the weekend’s derby that his side lost 2-0: that they simply weren’t good enough and the better team won.
Kasper Hogh scored twice in two minutes early in the first half to send Bodo flying, before Jens Hauge put the cherry on top in the second period and made sure City could have no way back, not even after Rayan Cherki breathed life back into the sky-blue outfit with a goal on the hour.
It should be made clear, Bodo are simply not a team at a level where beating City should be conceivable. They ply their trade in the Norwegian league, are 27th in the Champions League table, and drew and lost three of their six games played before this fixture. But after Guardiola dragged an exhausted first XI up into the icy north, only two days after taking a beating against local rivals Manchester United, perhaps the stage was well set for some European giant-slaying.
City had the possession but Bodo was able to play on the counter, first testing the weak centre-back pairing Abduokodir Khusanov and Max Alleyne, before Hogh headed in the opener from Ole Didrik Blomberg’s cross and then doubled the lead just moments later.
The Premier League side had several chances. Rayan Cherki tested the goalkeeper and both Alleyne and Rodri wasted chances from a header. But Bodo continued to look dangerous even after the break. Hauge soon curled a shot into the top corner to send the Norwegian side into dreamland. Surely City would find no way back from three goals down.
In almost pathetic manner, Cherki’s response with a low shot past goalkeeper Nikita Haikin on the hour was followed by two yellow cards in quick succession for Rodri, who was trying to halt the Bodo counter attacks. From that moment on, it was always a sense of more and not less for the Norwegian side. They could have made it three but Hauge hit the bar, and then Hogh’s goal was ruled out for offside as an abashed City side struggled in the cold.
