Fresh off a Sunday afternoon win, Borussia Dortmund are right back at it tomorrow in a Champions League match against Bodø/Glimt, a Norwegian side that has struggled mightily in their European Campaign so far. There’s no excuse for BVB not to walk away with a win, with the race in the Champions League league phase coming down to the wire.
Make no mistake, this is an absolutely huge game. Dortmund are currently in 10th place in the Champions League table, amidst a swarm of clubs all desperately jockeying
for the final few spots in the top eight. As a reminder, a finish in the top eight is very valuable because it would send Dortmund straight to the Round of 16, rather than needing to go into a playoff against one of the other 9th-24th teams.
Here is the table as things stand as of the end of the matches on Tuesday evening:
Depending on how other results go, a win could push Dortmund as high as third place, whereas a defeat or even a draw could put BVB in a very tough spot. There are just so many clubs competing for only a handful of spots, and they’re some of the biggest clubs in Europe. With remaining games against Tottenham and Inter, these will be three points tomorrow that Dortmund absolutely must have.
Bodø/Glimt have struggled in the Champions League so far, going without a win in their first five games. The Norwegian Eliteserien ended in November, with Glimt missing out on a title to Viking FK by a single point. They’ve got nothing to play for domestically until March, so there’s no reason not to expect a strong effort, even away from home.
Player to Watch: Kasper Waarst Høgh
On a team chock full of Norwegians, it’s the Dane Kasper Høgh who’s the man to look out for. He finished second in the Eliteserien with 17 goals in 28 games, and also had 5 assists. I’m not going to pretend I’ve tracked Glimt closely this season, but watching his highlights, he reminds me a lot of Guirassy, in that his strength is mainly his ability to make a lot out of very little time and space at the ball, and can seemingly finish from anywhere. This type of player can be really dangerous, especially because BVB have struggled to score a lot of goals this season. If they fall behind, things could get hairy quickly.
Predicted Lineup
Not much has changed on the injury front for BVB. Overall, I expect the squad to look similar to the XI that started against Hoffenheim. Kovac doesn’t seem to value rotation very much, so my predicted lineup is almost identical. The only change I’ve made is swapping out Couto for Julian Ryerson.
Score Prediction
There’s no reason BVB shouldn’t win this. Glimt might be strong in Norway, but they’ve looked out of their depth in the Champions League, and BVB will have home field advantage. I’m predicting a 2-0 win.
