Bodø/Glimt’s take on Manchester City in the Champions League group phase this week, with the Norwegians hoping to pull off a major upset.
- Date: 20/01/2026
- Kick-off: 5:45pm
- Location: Aspmyra Stadion, Bodø
In what is is the first ever competitive meeting between the two, Bodø/Glimt enter the seventh round of the league phase in a precarious position near the bottom of the table and City occupying the top end of the standings. The Norwegians have taken just three points from their six Champions League matches so far (0 wins, 3 draws, 3 defeats, 9 scored, 13 conceded), leaving them 32nd out of 36 in the league‑phase ranking and needing a strong finish to revive qualification hopes. City sit fourth with 13 points from six games (4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, 12 scored, 6 conceded), aiming to cement a top eight place and avoid the extra knockout round.
Bodø/Glimt arrive with a sharp contrast between domestic and European performance. In Norway, they have built a reputation on front‑foot football and entertaining games, underlined by recent season metrics where over 2.5 goals landed in around 80% of their fixtures and BTTS in 50%, with BTTS & over 2.5 combining in close to half of their matches. At home specifically, they have been potent, with recent samples showing them averaging about 2.5 goals scored and 1.4 conceded per game at Aspmyra, producing close to four goals per match on average.
That attacking outlook has not yet translated into consistent Champions League success, though, as Bodø/Glimt’s league phase record of three points from six matches reflects recurring defensive problems rather than a lack of threat going forward. They have scored in five of those six games but conceded 13 in total and are posting around 1.94 expected goals against per match, one of the worst defensive xG figures in the competition, with only Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt currently faring worse.
Manchester City travel north from a frustrating domestic spell, having seen a long unbeaten run ended by a 2–0 defeat to Manchester United in the Manchester derby, a match in which Pep Guardiola admitted his side lacked the energy and control required to impose their usual game. Even so, their Champions League record this season remains strong: four wins, one draw and one defeat from six league phase fixtures, with those victories coming against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal, opposition considerably stronger, on paper, than Bodø/Glimt.
City’s broader 2025-26 numbers still place them among Europe’s most efficient sides despite the domestic wobble. In the Premier League they sit second with 13 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats from 22 games, scoring 45 and conceding 21 for a goal difference of +24, and remain one of the division’s top‑ranked teams for goals for and overall xG. In Europe their 12 goals scored and 6 conceded in six league phase matches point to a team that can score at a high rate while usually limiting opponents to a manageable volume of chances, even if their recent run includes only one clean sheet in the last five games in all competitions and goals conceded in each of their last three Champions League outings.
Despite Saturday's performance, we fancy Pep Guardiola's side to get back to winning ways, and do so with relative comfort.
Bodø/Glimt 1-3 Manchester City
