Guardiola seeks vital win over Bodø/Glimt to secure top-eight spot

Manchester City travel to Norway to take on Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League at Aspmyra Stadion on Tuesday evening.

Bodø/Glimt secured a comfortable 4-1 victory over Diosgyori VTK in a club friendly in their last outing.

However, the Superlaget were held to a 2-2 draw at Borussia Dortmund last time out in the Champions League and are still searching for their first win in the league phase. They are currently placed 32nd in the league phase standings with just three points from six games.

Manchester City fell to a disappointing 2-0 derby defeat to rivals Manchester United in their last outing.

The Citizens were successful last time out in the Champions League, beating record-holders Real Madrid 2-1, and are currently sitting fourth in the league phase standings.

Match preview

Bodø/Glimt are winless in their six meetings with English sides in European competition (D1 L5), although they did manage to avoid defeat in the only one to take place in the UEFA Champions League (2-2 v Tottenham on MD2 this season).

This will be Manchester City’s first ever game against a Norwegian opponent. None of the last nine English sides to face a Norwegian team away from home in major European competition have lost (W6 D3), with Chelsea in October 2002 the last to lose there (4-2 loss v Viking in the UEFA Cup).

The Superlaget have conceded at least two goals in five of their six games against English sides in major European competition (14 in total), including in each of the last four.

After losing their final four away games of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League, Manchester City are unbeaten on the road (W2 D1) in the current edition. Pep Guardiola could win his 25th away game in charge of the Citizens in the competition here (on 24), something only two other managers have done with one side (39 for Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, 30 for Arsène Wenger at Arsenal).

Erling Haaland has scored in each of his last six UEFA Champions League starts for City. Only one player has ever had a longer run for an English club in the competition, with Ruud van Nistelrooy scoring in eight in a row for Manchester United, between September 2002 and April 2003.

Haaland has netted more goals in the UEFA Champions League (55 in 54 games) than all Norwegian teams combined since the 2000/01 season (48 in 42 games). The Manchester City striker could become the first Norwegian player to score a goal against a Norwegian side in the competition here.

Bodø/Glimt’s Jens Petter Hauge is one of only two players with 15+ completed dribbles (23) and 15+ chances created (15) in the UEFA Champions League this season, along with Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise.

Team news

Bodø/Glimt

The host will be without Jostein Gundersen, who will serve the third game of his suspension following a red card against AS Monaco in early November.

While Haitam Aleesami is sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Manchester City

The visitors are without a number of players due to injury and suspension, including John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Oscar Bobb, Nico Gonzalez and Savinho.

Antoine Semenyo will also be unavailable until the knockout rounds of the competition after signing for the club earlier in the winter window.

Predicted line-ups

Bodø/Glimt: Nikita Haikin, Fredrik Sjøvold, Odin Bjørtuft, Haitam Aleesami, Isak Määttä, Patrick Berg, Ole Didrik Blomberg, Håkon Evjen, Sondre Fet, Jens Petter Hauge, Kasper Høgh.

Manchester City: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Aké, Nico O’Reilly, Tijjani Reijnders, Rodri, Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki, Jérémy Doku, Erling Haaland.