European NAP: Unrelenting Bodo backed to get amongst the goals

EUROPEAN football fanatic Mark O'Haire (@MarkOHaire) heads to Norway on Sunday for his first European NAP selection of the 2020/21 campaign.

Brann v Bodo/Glimt | Sunday 20^th September 2020, 17:00

Regular European NAP readers will be well-versed in the excellence of runaway Eliteserien league leaders Bodo/Glimt. The Nordland outfit extended their advantage at the summit to 13 points with a staggering 6-1 shellacking of third-placed Odd last weekend and followed it up with a 3-1 success over Zalgiris in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Kjetil Knutsen’s men are no bigger than 1/50 to clinch a maiden Norwegian title and it’s difficult to see how or where the Superlaget juggernaut will be stopped. The Glimt gang are famed for their fast-paced, all-action, attacking football and have returned a remarkable W15-D2-L0 thus far, scoring an eye-watering 62 goals at a rate of one every 25 minutes!

Bodo have bagged at least two goals in all 17 of their Eliteserien outings, striking three times or more on 12 occasions. And their gung-ho approach is reflected by the overwhelming underlying performance data with the Superlaget averaging a monstrous 2.58 Expected Goals (xG) per-game, with 1.69 of that figure heralding from open play action.

So how do we keep Bodo onside for Sunday’s trip to Brann? The visitors are no bigger than 1/2 shots to succeed with quotes of just 2/5 available on the table-toppers notching two goals or more. However, William Hill are offering evens on Knutsen’s free-flowing entertainers scoring in both halves, a feat achieved by Glimt in 14 (82%) of their 17 league dates thus far.

Brann have silenced only three of their 17 opponents and kept a solitary shutout in nine as hosts despite yet welcoming any top-three team this term. The Bergen boys were swatted aside 5-1 at Valerenga last weekend and come into this clash having posted W1-D0-L5 against sides occupying the top-five positions, including a 5-0 thumping in the reverse clash.