{"id":255225,"date":"2026-01-21T00:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/255225\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T00:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:48:13","slug":"bodo-glimt-stun-manchester-city-arsenal-make-light-work-of-inter-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/255225\/","title":{"rendered":"Bodo\/Glimt stun Manchester City, Arsenal make light work of Inter \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

To channel Bjorge Lillelien and his famous commentary on Norway\u2019s win against England in 1981: Pep Guardiola<\/a>, your Manchester City<\/a> boys took a heck of a beating here on the shores of the Norwegian Sea, below the skies of the aurora borealis, and on the Aspmyra Stadion\u2019s artificial pitch graced by this immortal Bodo\/Glimt victory which downed a continental superpower.<\/p>\n

Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re was present to witness a win that came courtesy of Kasper Hogh\u2019s two first-half goals plus Jens Petter Hauge\u2019s curled peach after the interval, as Norway\u2019s prime minister escaped Donald Trump\u2019s curious obsession with the Nobel peace prize: another measure of how this result will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n

To comprehend Bodo\u2019s triumph, think Macclesfield\u2019s FA Cup third round knockout of the holders, Crystal Palace; Guardiola\u2019s team are not the European champions but they were three years ago, the same season they claimed a historic treble.<\/p>\n

In 2017 Bodo\/Glimt played in Norway\u2019s second tier, but by last year \u2013 having never won the national championship before this run \u2013 they were the four-in-a-row Eliteserien victors under Kjetil Knutsen. Now, after their most famous scalp, they have seven points, keeping their dream of progression alive, while City remain on 13, so entering the last 16 directly remains in the balance.<\/p>\n

Knutsen\u2019s men went close to a dream start. Rayan Cherki was upended in midfield, Bodo broke and Hogh, then Ole Didrik Blomberg, shot. City replied almost immediately. This time a Cherki snapshot was saved low by Nikita Haikin; Phil Foden dropped the resulting corner towards Max Alleyne\u2019s head yet with a gaping goal he failed to connect.<\/p>\n

\"Bodo\/Glimt'sBodo\/Glimt’s Jostein Gundersen challenges Manchester City’s Erling Haaland. Photograph: Fredrik Varfjell\/NTB \/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Erling Haaland \u2013 brought up in Byrne, about 1,800km south of here \u2013 was next put in along a right hand channel the No 9 swivelled and chipped but Haikin gathered. Haaland, who scored against this opposition in his Molde days, was targeted by team-mates who aimed high balls for him to try to hit home.<\/p>\n

Now Bodo did \u2013 twice \u2013 through near-carbon copy moves. Each time City\u2019s defence was exposed down its left, where Alleyne and Nico O\u2019Reilly allowed Blomberg to scoop over crosses.<\/p>\n

Hogh\u2019s first finish was a header, from a tight angle, to the left of goal. The second was more central, a little further out, and as composed, with his right boot. Gianluigi Donnarumma was left exposed between City\u2019s posts for both.<\/p>\n

Cue bedlam from all inside the 8,000-capacity Aspmyra Stadion, minus the 404 travelling faithful who were as stunned as Guardiola was anguished, the manager twisting in despair.<\/p>\n

He had offered a no excuses line regarding the surface and the plunging temperatures; for this fishing village 80km north of the Arctic Circle the -1 degree at kick-off was actually temperate.<\/p>\n

When Bodo again tore through City\u2019s defence \u2013 this time leaving Abdukodir Khusanov to chase Hogh \u2013 you wondered whether Guardiola might change at the break to try to halt the havoc being wreaked.<\/p>\n

When Sven Jablonski blew for half-time, Rodri\u2019s moan to the German referee was emblematic of the state City were in \u2013 Bodo\u2019s 31 per cent possession telling the tale of their smash-and-grab act.<\/p>\n

\"KasperKasper Hogh celebrates scoring Bodo\/Glimt’s second goal. Photograph: Martin Ole Wold\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Guardiola made zero adjustments for the second period, then watched Rodri aim a diagonal straight to a yellow shirt that caused him more despair.<\/p>\n

After Tijjani Reijnders\u2019 effort went weakly into Haikin\u2019s gloves, Bodo swarmed forward. Only Donnarumma\u2019s leg thwarted Hakon Evjen, then the offside flag (correctly) denied Hogh a hat-trick goal.<\/p>\n

As with Saturday\u2019s 2-0 defeat at Manchester United, City were flat, bereft of fight and spark, and when Hauge ghosted past a flailing Rodri, the finish beyond Donnarumma rocketed into the top-right corner and Bodo were in fantasy land.<\/p>\n

At last City responded, Cherki\u2019s low drive beating Haikin to his right. It came on 60 minutes, 120 seconds after Hauge\u2019s strike. In the next 120, Rodri drew two bookings, both for similar cynical fouls to halt Bodo breaks, and off the captain went.<\/p>\n

This was all breathless. Hauge hit the bar, then Hogh had a second goal wiped out for offside before Foden, again a non-factor, was replaced by Omar Marmoush.<\/p>\n

Yet when Haaland hoofed over it was one of countless openings City spurned. Beforehand, the statistic was that Haaland had scored more goals in the Champions League \u2013 55 in 54 outings \u2013 than all Norwegian teams since the 2000-01 season \u2013 48 in 42 games). At the end this meant nothing as the delirious home support partied and City wandered off, schooled and embarrassed. The result and buccaneering style of it was scintillating and is precisely why the sport can transfix. <\/p>\n

\"GabrielGabriel Jesus scores Arsenal’s first goal. Photograph: Stefano Rellandini\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Meanwhile at the San Siro, Arsenal maintained their \u200bperfect run in the Champions League with a 3-1 \u200dwin over Inter Milan as Gabriel Jesus scored a first-half double to leave Viktor Gyokeres to wrap up the victory late \u200con.<\/p>\n

A seventh win from seven guarantees Arsenal a \u2060top-two finish in the league phase, giving them \u200bhome \u200dadvantage in the second leg all the way through to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta\u2019s side now sit top of \u2060the standings on 21 points, six ahead \u2060of Bayern Munich who \u2060host Union Saint-Gilloise on Wednesday, while Inter dropped to ninth in the table on 12 points.<\/p>\n

Jesus finished off a scuffed effort by \u200dJurrien Timber to give Arsenal a 10th-minute lead. Petar Sucic levelled eight minutes later only for Jesus to put the visitors back in front with a header from a corner \u200c14 minutes before \u200cthe break.<\/p>\n

Substitute Gyokeres wrapped up the win with a stunning finish from \u200coutside the area six minutes from time.<\/p>\n

And in London, Tottenham Hotspur took a 2-0 win over a 10-man Dortmund.<\/p>\n

Cristian Romero got Spurs on the board in the 14th minute and within 15 minutes Dormund\u2019s task was made all the more formidable when Daniel Svensson was shown red. Dominic Solanke slotted a second for the home side on 37 minutes. \u2013 Guardian & Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To channel Bjorge Lillelien and his famous commentary on Norway\u2019s win against England in 1981: Pep Guardiola, your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15013,61,60,8579,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-255225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-champions-league","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-manchester-city","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}