Manchester City will travel to Norway and the hostile environs of Bodø/Glimt with hopes of putting their derby day blues behind them. With Pep Guardiola’s side cruising through this season’s league phase, they will start as favourites.
Here’s everything you need to know about the game:
How to watch
The match will be broadcast on TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video in the UK, Paramount+ in the U.S., SonyLIV in India and Stan Sport in Australia. You can also follow along on ESPN.
Key Details
Kick-off time: Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 17.45 p.m. GMT (12.45 p.m. ET; 11,15 p.m. IST and 4.45 a.m. AEDT)
Venue: Aspmyra Stadion, Bodo
Referee: Sven Jablonski (GER)
VAR: Robert Schröder (GER)
Injury and Team News
Manchester City
Savinho, D: OUT, knock
John Stones, D: OUT, muscle
Josko Gvardiol, D: OUT, ankle
Rúben Dias, D: OUT, hamstring
Mateo Kovacic, M: OUT, ankle
Oscar Bobb, F: OUT, hamstring
Talking Points
Erling Haaland could use a pick-me-up
It seems strange to say this about a striker who has scored 26 goals across all comps already this season, but Erling Haaland seems to be going through a bit of lean patch. Since his brace against a poor West Ham United outfit, Haaland scored just once in seven matches, and that includes 45 minutes against an Exeter City who conceded 10 to City.
With Arsenal pulling away in the league, now would be the time for Haaland to rediscover his goalscoring touch — and what better way to do that than a trip to his home nation to face what you’d call a European ‘minnow’? His Champions League form has been near impeccable: 6 goals in 6 games, scoring every time he’s started and only missing out in the home loss to Bayer Leverkusen where he played just 25 minutes.
Guardiola can rotate. But will he?
The last time Pep Guardiola rotated big time, Leverkusen came to Manchester and smacked his heavily changed City side around the Etihad. He will not want a repeat, even if the reigning German champions are a different level to Bodo/Glimt, but this is a squad that needs some rotation where possible. It’s already been a tough season, and the December-January fixture pileup hasn’t helped one jot.
Yes, City need the win in Norway but with a long half of the season still remaining, Guardiola’s not going to get a better chance to mix that starting XI up a bit.
Bodo’s plastic pitch is tough, but the team haven’t won yet
Elite pros don’t like plastic pitches simply because they’re not used to it: and Bodo/Glimt have often troubled illustrious visitors on it. Just this season, it took an 89th minute own goal for Tottenham Hotspur to salvage a 2-2 draw, a Bodo red card to give Monaco a 1-0 win, and a 91st minute winner for Juventus to take three points in a 3-2 thriller.
As tough as it’s been, though, the bottom line is they’ve not won any of their three home matches and that means they’re on three points after six games (0W 3D 3L). Can they pull off a mighty upset to remain relevant in the discussions to enter the final 24?
City will want to seal up that top 8 spot
A final 24 spot won’t be enough for Man City. Last season they were relegated to that zone, needing to win a playoff knockout to make the pre-quarters … and found themselves up against Real Madrid.
That’s not the kind of fixture City will want to repeat this time around and a win here will go a long way in sealing a top 8 spot that will guarantee them an automatic entry into that round-of-16 zone.
What do the numbers say?
Nothing good for the home side
Bodo/Glimt have lost five of their six encounters against English sides — the lone non-loss was that draw against Spurs this season. City, meanwhile, have never faced a Norwegian outfit in UEFA competition.
Going back to last season, Bodo have won only one of their last 11 UEFA competition matches.
City will want to score at least one on Tuesday — their next goal will be their 300th in the Champions League proper.
This is a quirky one: A goal against Bodo would make Haaland the first Norwegian player to score against a Norwegian team in the Champions League proper. Haaland has an away goal against Tuesday’s opponents — from back in 2018 when he scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win for Molde.