Borussia Dortmund loses 0:1 at Bodø/Glimt in its first Champions League defeat
Fredrik Sjövold's 52nd-minute goal gave Bodø/Glimt a 1:0 win on Wednesday, 14 October, and handed Dortmund its first defeat of the season. The loss came one day after coach Niko Kovac extended his contract to 2029.
A narrow defeat on artificial turf
Borussia Dortmund lost 0:1 at FK Bodø/Glimt on Wednesday, 14 October, in its second Champions League league-phase match. Fredrik Sjövold scored the only goal in the 52nd minute, after a goalless first half in which the Norwegian side created the clearer chances, including two big opportunities before the break. The game was played at the Aspmyra Stadion, an 8,000-seat ground beside the airport in the northern Norwegian town, where temperatures were around nine degrees and there was no rain. Dortmund had opened the league phase with a 3:2 win over Villarreal, so this defeat leaves it without points from the match.
- Dortmund draws 2:2 with Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga
- Kovac extends his contract until 2029
- Fredrik Sjövold scores the only goal against Dortmund
Five changes and a flat first half
Coach Niko Kovac made five changes to his starting lineup compared with the 2:2 Bundesliga draw against Werder Bremen on Friday, 9 October. He argued that smaller players would cope better on the surface, and in attack Konstantinos Karetsas, Samuele Inacio and Fabio Silva were given starts. Inacio, a Champions League debutant, returned to the starting eleven for the first time since his red card against Hamburger SV on the opening Bundesliga matchday, about six and a half weeks earlier. Kovac had signed his contract extension to 2029 on Tuesday, 13 October, the day before the trip north.
We believe that smaller players find their way better on this surface.
Dortmund were flat before the break. Expected-goals figures cited by Blick put Dortmund at 0.01 at half-time against 0.28 for Bodø/Glimt, while the hosts held up to 65% of possession. Shortly after Sjövold's goal, Kovac brought on four players at once, including Serhou Guirassy and Julian Ryerson, but the changes came too late to change the outcome.
- Bodø/Glimt
- 0.28 xG
- Borussia Dortmund
- 0.01 xG
Reaction from the squad
Defender Waldemar Anton spoke to DAZN after the match and said that the surface and the stadium were no excuse, and that the intensity had been missing. He added that the team had to be ice-cold in the Champions League, which had been the problem.
That is simply not enough. In the Champions League you have to be ice-cold, and that was a problem.
Before the trip, sporting director Lars Ricken had predicted that the match would not be much fun in Bodø, and the squad had studied the television pictures of Bayern Munich's 3:3 draw at Viking Stavanger on Tuesday, 13 October, as an extra warning. The schedule has been punishing, with three away games in seven days covering 11,000 flight kilometres. The next fixture is a Bundesliga match at Union Berlin on Saturday, 17 October.
Stuttgart wins in Bratislava
In the same round, VfB Stuttgart beat Slovan Bratislava 3:0 (1:0) in the Slovak capital. Deniz Undav scored in the 29th minute, Sandro Cruz put the ball into his own net in the 65th minute, and Ermedin Demirovic added the third goal in the 90th minute. Stuttgart had already beaten Viking Stavanger 3:1 at home on the opening matchday, so this is its second win in the league phase. According to Focus, Stuttgart had also won 3:1 at Bratislava during the 2024/25 Champions League season.