Manchester City have been battered for the second time in a week after Norwegian minnows Bodo/Glimt humiliated Pep Guardiola’s side with a 3-1 victory in the Champions League
19:40, 20 Jan 2026Updated 19:49, 20 Jan 2026
Pep Guardiola
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Pep Guardiola was humiliated again(Image: Kieran McManus/Shutterstock)
Just days after they were battered at Old Trafford in the Manchester derby, Manchester City have been humiliated for the second time in a matter of days by Norwegian minnows Bodo/Glimt, who deservedly won 3-1 to claim their first-ever Champions League win.
Pep Guardiola’s side were played off the park by Manchester United and were incredibly flattered by the scoreline in their 2-0 defeat, with United finding the back of the net five times in total, but the score was only kept down by the linesman’s flag.
A wounded City lugged themselves to the Arctic Circle on Tuesday night to face the Eliteserien runners-up on a 4G pitch in front of 8,000 fans in the Aspmyra Stadion. With all due respect to Bodo, it’s a setup no stranger to that of the National League in the English pyramid, and City’s performance had plenty of resemblance to that of a non-league side.
Glimt's Kasper Hogh celebrates
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Bodo/Glimt beat Manchester City in their first-ever Champions League win(Image: AP)
City were blown open in the opening minutes of the game and received a major warning about the danger the hosts posed on the counter-attack, but they failed to heed those early forays forward.
Kasper Hogh, who has been linked with a move to relegation-threatened Norwich City, scored twice in two minutes, with 20-year-old centre-back Max Alleyne at fault for both goals.
A third followed in the 58th minute when Jens Petter Hauge scored a spectacular goal from the edge of the box to put the hosts in dreamland with a 3-0 lead. An unforced error by Rodri in possession leaves questions about his sharpness and ability to come back from serious knee injuries after he was run ragged in the derby just days before.
Kasper Hogh
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Kasper Hogh scored twice in two minutes(Image: Getty Images)
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Erling Haaland flopped on his return to Norway(Image: Kieran McManus/Shutterstock)
But soon those questions turned into major concerns as the Spaniard was shown two yellow cards for two cynical fouls in two minutes. Rodri was again unable to match the levels of players who are effectively playing in the middle of their off-season, having not played a game in six weeks, with the Norwegian league running from March to November.
Rayan Cherki fired home a brilliant driven effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to give City something to salvage. For the first time on the night City launched attack after attack, but they were all quelled by their heroic hosts, leaving goalkeeper Nikita Haikin with an easy night's work he could barely have dreamed of.
Glimt are no mugs. But this is Guardiola's once all-conquering City side that has been comprehensively outplayed. The crossbar and offside flag once again kept the score down.
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Rodri was sent off after two yellow cards(Image: Kieran McManus/Shutterstock)
Kjetil Knutsen has done an incredible job transforming Superlaget into the dominant force in Norway, winning four league titles in a row between 2020 and 2024 – the only top-flight titles in their history.
Their recent European adventures have also been remarkable. Glimt reached the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League in 2022, where they were beaten by Roma, but not after they had beaten Jose Mourinho’s side 6-1 in the group stage.
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Last season they were valiantly beaten by eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-finals of the Europa League and have claimed draws against Spurs and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League this campaign.
City will now be holding their breath ahead of the rest of the midweek Champions League fixtures on Tuesday and Wednesday. Currently sat in 4th, the Blues could be overtaken by 11 teams, potentially leaving them outside of the top eight and having to qualify through the play-offs – the round they were knocked out by Real Madrid last season.
Bodo's win leaves them with an outside chance of qualifying for the play-offs, but they will need to at least draw and hope those around them slip up.