Bodo Glimt have beaten Manchester City 3-1, making it two losses on the bounce for Pep Guardiola’s side.
Guardiola named Manchester City’s youngest ever starting eleven in the UEFA Champions League, with an average age of 24 years and 84 days.
While City currently still sit fourth in the group phase, they could be knocked out of the top eight if results go against them in the coming days.
Meanwhile, a victory over City takes Bodo Glimt up to 26th in the group phase, giving them a chance of making the top 24 with a win against Atletico Madrid next week.
In this article, we’ll cover
Man City’s transition defending woes
Manchester City struggled to contain Bodo Glimt transitions in the first half, with the young defender Max Alleyne making some big mistakes.
For the opening goal, Alleyne and Abdukodir Khusanov are left in a 2v2 from a direct ball forward, which Alleyne looks to jump in and intercept, but fails to do so leaving Bodo Glimt 2v1.
The second goal was another error from the young defender, who gets caught on the ball by Jens Petter Hauge leaving Bodo Glimt with a 3v2 against the Manchester City defence.
The Norwegian side were intent on moving the ball quickly through the lines once they regained possession, looking to attack the space left behind the advanced full-backs of Man City and cause issues for the young centre-back pair.
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Bodo Glimt attacking intent
Kjetil Knutsen’s side had clear intent to break from their 4-4-2 defensive structure, with the two forwards and both wingers bombing on at every opportunity following a turnover in possession.
Bodo Glimt managed to generate 1.35 expected goals with their 34% share of possession, taking eight shots but creating five big chances.
Once they forced a turnover, Bodo Glimt would look to attack fast through the lines, catching City’s full-backs out of position and making it difficult for the centre-back pairing to deal with.
Kasper Hugh was the beneficiary in the first half of those attacking transition opportunities, scoring twice and becoming one of only two players to score two goals and take five or more touches in the opposition box against Manchester City in the first half of a Champions League game.
Guardiola’s attempted change
Just minutes into the second half, Guardiola tweaked Nico O’Reilly’s position in order to give City three players in the first line of build up, which more importantly gave them an extra man to defend transitions.
The third Bodo Glimt goal came in spite of this change, with the Norwegian side bombing forward after forcing a turnover, still outnumbering City’s defensive unit 6v5 due to the sheer instance to break with purpose.
Rodri giving the ball away allowed Hauge to receive the ball out wide with separation from the full-back, where he then skipped past Rodri who vacated the middle to apply pressure on the Norwegian.
Hauge was then able to drive inside and take the space available, before guiding it into the top right corner past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Despite Guardiola trying to make tweaks to protect his side against transitions, his side were out worked and out ran, which reflected in the final scoreline.