NOS Football•
Manchester City has been defeated by Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League. The English superpower lost 3-1 above the Norwegian Arctic Circle.
Apart from losing face, the defeat does not hurt much for City, which still has excellent credentials to advance directly to the last sixteen. Thanks to the great victory, the Norwegians can still dream of the intermediate round.
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De stand in de Champions League (1/2) -
De stand in de Champions League (2/2)
With four titles since 2020, the modest Bodø/Glimt is almost the sole ruler in Norwegian football, but at the end of November it had to leave the title to Viking Stavanger.
The new competition season doesn’t start until March, but it was still important to stay fit. With Manchester City and Atlético Madrid, two more prestigious matches are scheduled and with two resounding victories, a European sequel would still be possible.
For City, that sequel is almost certain and so coach Pep Guardiola traveled to the Arctic Circle with the necessary youth players. However, his starting XI was far from a B team.
Two goals in two minutes
The first twenty minutes went smoothly, but then a crazy phase began for Bodø/Glimt, with two goals within two minutes.
In fact, both times the maker and the declarant were the same.
At first, Ole Didrik Blomberg seemed to be wrongly stopped by the Uzbek Abdoekodir Choesanov, but the winger quickly got up and delivered a cross that was headed in by Kasper Høgh at the far post. And then Blomberg escaped from his opponent, passed wide to Høgh and he hit the ball over Gianluigi Donnarumma: 2-0.
Today it emerged that Norwich City (from the English Championship) wants to make a bid for the 25-year-old Dane Høgh. After his performance against City, the striker will probably be able to aim higher.
Especially if he had scored his third of the evening before half time, but first Donnarumma stood in the way and then he shot high himself.
Not Haaland’s night
The biggest star of Norwegian football did not have his sights set straight. Erling Haaland had two enormous chances shortly before half-time: first he just grazed the ball and just before half-time he shot wildly wide.
Shortly after Tijjani Reijnders shot the ball into the side net, Petter Hauge made it 3-0 in a particularly beautiful way. The midfielder, who was once plucked from Bodø by AC Milan and returned to the old nest via the Balgian league, curled the ball into the far cross.
The more than 8,000 Norwegian fans had barely finished celebrating when the 3-1 was in the net. Rayan Cherki took a shot from just outside the box and beat goalkeeper Nikita Haikin with a slider.
Red Rodri
However, a quick comeback was nipped in the bud by captain Rodri, who received two yellow cards within one minute and therefore had to be sent off the field.
The home team eagerly accepted the invitation to decide the game: Hauge took another swing and hit the crossbar and then Høgh thought he would score his third, but that goal was canceled due to offside.
There was no more scoring in the remainder of the match and so after the famous 6-1 win over AS Roma in the 2022 Europa League, the people of Bodø have another match to tell their grandchildren about later.
Club Brugge can also still dream
Club Brugge can also still dream of a sequel in the Champions League. The Belgian top club, which had lost the last two competition matches to low-flyers Charleroi and La Louvière, won 4-1 on a visit to the already eliminated Kairat Almaty.
The opening goal in Kazakhstan was scored by Aleksandar Stankovic, son of former Inter player Dejan Stankovic. With a victory over Olympique Marseille in Bruges on the final day, Club Brugge will have nine points and that could be enough for the intermediate round.
