JAKARTA - Manchester City striker Erling Haaland apologized for the embarrassing defeat against Norwegian team Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League qualifying match. The defeat made Man City threatened to fail to qualify automatically for the 16th round.
Man City suffered their second consecutive defeat. After suffering a 2-0 defeat against Manchester United in the English Premier League match at Old Trafford, Man City was then humiliated by Bodo/Glimt 3-1 in a duel at Aspmyra Stadium, Wednesday, January 21, 2026 WIB.
The result was very disappointing because in the two matches, Man City was able to dominate the game. Even the ball possession of the team coached by Pep Guardiola is always above 65%. This means that Man City completely dominates but loses its sharpness. Their attacks always hit a dead end.
The same situation happened when Haaland went home to Norway. He did not flinch when The Cityzens played with a temperature of minus 9 degrees Celsius. Haaland also extended a bad record because he only scored one goal in the last eight matches in various competitions. While the one goal that was created was from the penalty spot when facing Brighton and Hove Albion.
"I take full responsibility for not being able to score. I apologize to anyone, to every City supporter who has traveled to support us," Haaland said as quoted by The Sun.
"This is indeed embarrassing. I don't know what else to say because I really don't have any answers. I can only say I'm sorry," he said again.
"They still deserve to win. On the other hand, we are not good enough. They played amazingly at home. They played well until they scored the first goal. Then they scored again. Then Jen (Petter Hauge) scored the best goal of the year. We did our best, but still failed. Senior players are responsible for this failure," said Haaland.
In that match, Man City really struggled against Bodo/Glimt. In fact, who would have thought the hosts were able to win 3-0. Meanwhile, Man City's only goal was scored by Rayan Cherki. But Man City then lost Rodri who got a red card. Playing with 10 players, they struggled to catch up with the goal deficit.
"I've done my best. And now I have to prepare for the next match. We have to recover for the next match four days later," he said again.
Meanwhile, Guardiola said the absence of some of the pillar players left a hole in some sectors of the team. According to him, the team actually had the opportunity to win the match. But it seems that everything went wrong.
"We played without important players in some sectors. This makes the team have weaknesses like what we experienced last season. But the players still fight even though it was 10 against 11. I feel this result is not good since 2025. Not only in the Premier League but also in this match," said Guardiola.
"But we're looking forward to the next game. There are still four days before we face Wolves [Wolverhampton Wanderers]. And then we play Galatasaray. We'll see what happens," he said.
The defeat against Bodo/Glimt made Man City drop in the rankings. They are in seventh place with 13 points. Man City's position is threatened if they fail to stay in the top eight, they could lose the opportunity to automatically qualify for the round of 16.
They will play the playoffs like last season. At that time, Man City was immediately eliminated in the playoffs after being defeated by Real Madrid.
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