So now Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have something else in common. Managers with five Champions Leagues between them have each stumbled in the cold of the north of Norway. The heaviest, and perhaps most ignominious, defeat of Mourinho’s career was the 6-1 battering his Roma side suffered against Bodo/Glimt in 2021. For Guardiola, a 3-1 loss was merely his joint-biggest defeat of the week. It was, though, a dispiriting affair for a man accustomed to rather better. Perhaps Guardiola is not the only leader who would be best advised to stay out of the Arctic Circle.
At the very least, it may give him another unique feat to add to a host of others. Has anyone else recorded back-to-back European results of beating Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and then losing to Bodo/Glimt? Certainly, the symbolic nature of such a defeat could suggest his powers are waning.
