Napoli vs Bodo/Glimt: McTominay double rescues Allegri

Early September brought Scott McTominay heart surgery. Tuesday night at the Maradona brought him two goals, including the header that finally settled a seven-goal Champions League thriller. Napoli beat Bodo/Glimt 4–3, and Massimiliano Allegri got a reprieve he badly needed.

The context made this far heavier than a typical third league-stage fixture. Allegri arrived on the back of consecutive defeats to Villarreal and bottom-placed Serie A side Venezia, a run that had prompted club discussions about an immediate punitive training camp retreat. He leaves with Napoli's first points of the league phase and a personal five-game losing streak in the competition finally over.

Nobody in Naples will pretend it was comfortable. Napoli led three times and were pegged back twice by a Bodo/Glimt side that had 57% of the ball, played with more conviction for long spells and, in Sondre Fet, had the best player on the pitch.

Politano volley rocks Bodo/Glimt inside a minute

The tone was set after 54 seconds. Leonardo Spinazzola swung a cross in from the left and Matteo Politano met it first time with his left foot, a volley from 12 yards that flew into the roof of the net. It was his second goal of the season in all competitions, in his tenth appearance.

Bodo/Glimt did not flinch. Their reply on 27 minutes came at the end of an extended passing sequence: Fet laid the ball off and Jens Hauge curled a low, side-footed finish from the edge of the area through a crowded box into the far bottom corner. Hauge's seventh goal of the campaign was exactly the kind the Norwegians are built to score — patient, then precise.

Allegri had gambled in midfield. To rest Stanislav Lobotka, Kevin De Bruyne was shifted into an unfamiliar deep-lying playmaker role in front of the back four. "De Bruyne è un giocatore straordinario, gli ho detto che in quella posizione si divertirà, poi c'era anche bisogno di far riposare Lobotka," Allegri said, explaining that he had told De Bruyne he would enjoy himself there and that Lobotka needed a rest.

McTominay strikes twice to keep Napoli in front

De Bruyne justified the experiment four minutes before half-time. He slipped a through ball into the penalty area, McTominay poked an angled right-footed strike goalwards, and a deflection off Jostein Gundersen looped it beyond Nikita Haikin. Scrappy, but it was his first goal of the season after a month out following surgery to treat a cardiac arrhythmia — and it meant 2–1 at the break.

The second half belonged to Bodo/Glimt for long stretches. On 62 minutes Fet slipped a pass through a defender's legs inside the box, and Andreas Helmersen turned between two markers before drilling a low left-footed shot past Alex Meret from 11 metres. It was Helmersen's 15th goal of the season, and he has now scored in four of his side's last six matches.

The Maradona grew restless. Midway through the half, deafening whistles rained down on the Napoli players as Bodo/Glimt kept the ball for prolonged spells leading up to the 74th minute, in front of a subdued crowd of under 40,000.

A minute later came the answer. Politano cut inside from the right and hung a cross towards the far post, where McTominay out-jumped Fredrik Sjøvold and headed high into the net. The double made him the first Scottish player ever to score a brace in more than one match in the main stage of the Champions League.

Bjørtuft hands Napoli a cushion before a frantic finish

The goal that made it 4–2 was born of substitute Giovane's persistence. He pressed Sjøvold into a turnover by the left corner flag, cut to the byline and drilled a low cross towards the near post intended for Rasmus Højlund. The sliding Odin Bjørtuft got there first and poked it past Haikin into his own net on 88 minutes.

Bjørtuft then came agonisingly close to acrobatic redemption. With the clock on 90, Hauge floated a chipped ball behind the Napoli line and the defender flicked a looping volley with his studs over Meret onto the underside of the crossbar. Fet was waiting a yard out to nod in the rebound — his sixth goal of the season and his third direct involvement of the night after setting up both Hauge and Helmersen.

Bodo/Glimt have now scored in each of their last seven matches in all competitions, 19 goals in that run. Here it still was not enough.

The numbers describe two different games played at once. The visitors had the ball and won five corners to Napoli's two; Napoli were more direct and more dangerous, landing eight of their 17 shots on target against six of 15. Three Napoli yellow cards to none for Bodo/Glimt reflected a side that spent long periods chasing, though the contest itself passed without refereeing or VAR controversy.

Allegri breathes again as Napoli's flaws stay exposed

The milestones will soften the morning headlines. This was Napoli's 100th win in UEFA competition, and the first time they had scored four in a European fixture since Luciano Spalletti's tenure. The Italian press greeted it as desperately needed relief for Allegri, while heavily scrutinising the defensive fragility, the stamina drops and the loss of control that twice let the visitors back in.

In Norway, Bodo/Glimt were praised for their bravery, technical quality and superior possession away from home, but there was deep frustration over self-inflicted mistakes and a passive low block that looked naive against Napoli's aerial threat.

The win lifts Napoli to 22nd on three points, level with 26th-placed Bodo/Glimt, both sides having won one and lost two. The pressure on Allegri has eased, not vanished. Concede three at home again, and the talk in Naples will return to retreats rather than records.