Cristian Chivu's side are romping ahead in Serie A, where they lead the table by seven points, but amassed only enough points (15) to see them finish in 10th position in the league stage of the UCL.
Inter's six changes
Given that Bodo had already beaten Man City and Atletico Madrid, and held Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund in the competition this season, Chivu's decision to change six players in his starting XI seemed a little misguided, and suggested that the Italians believed this assignment might be a foregone conclusion.
One of those changes, Francesco Pio Esposito (20y 235d), became the youngest player to start a Champions League knockout stage game for Inter since the 18-year-old pairing of Mario Balotelli and Davide Santon took to the field against Man Utd in March 2009.
To give further context to the supposed imbalance, none of Bodo/Glimt's starting XI had ever played in a UCL knockout stage game before, while eight of Inter's starting XI had made at least 15 appearances in this phase of the competition.
Nicolo Barella, for example, was making his 56th UCL appearance for the Nerazzurri, equalling Dejan Stankovic in fifth place for the most appearances in the competition for Inter.
Hauge and Martinez the main men
With six straight wins going into the game, as well as three victories and just one defeat on the road in this season's UCL, Chivu's confidence was, perhaps, understandable.
The Norwegian outfit were unbeaten in four, though, and in the Champions League at home had won one, drawn one and lost two. They had scored in four straight games in the competition, and hadn't been stopped from scoring since their league phase game against Monaco back at the start of November.
All eyes would've been on two players pre-match: Bodo's Jens Petter Hauge, who was their leading scorer in the competition with four goals, the same as Inter's talisman, Lautaro Martinez.
It was the Argentinian who had the game's first chance but saw his effort blocked, and just 15 minutes afterwards, Sondre Fet's fine finish would've given Chivu and his squad the jolt they needed.
Bodo shock last season's finalists
A wonderfully crafted goal that Inter themselves would've been proud of, the Italians will have been aware of their record of W0, D0, L3 when conceding the opening goal in the 2025/2026 UCL.
Furthermore, it was the fourth time in their last five Champions League matches that they'd gone 1-0 behind, as often as they conceded first across their previous 26 matches in the competition.
Matteo Darmian's shot against the post preceded a flurry of attacks from the visitors before Esposito drew them level on the half hour.
In so doing, he became the club's second-youngest scorer in the competition after Obafemi Martins (18y 197d in May 2003 vs Milan).
Eight more shots before the break evidenced a real shift in Inter's favour, with Bodo surely glad of the half-time whistle when it came.
Superb show of accurate passing from the Italians
All of Martinez, Esposito, Darmian and Petar Sucic were fully on the front foot throughout the game, making Inter's attack also the best form of their defence.
Sucic was particularly busy with seven touches in the Bodo box, and 19 passes into the final third, which was only bettered by Barella's 26.
Certainly, Chivu couldn't admonish his playing staff for their distribution on the night, as even the astro pitch didn't stop the vast majority of the Inter squad from posting pass completion stats in the high 80% range.
Barella, for example, completed 31 of his 32 in the first half, but there also has to be an end product in games, rather than those passing carousels for the sake of it.
Hauge does it again
Martinez hit the woodwork just a minute into the second half, meaning Inter had hit the post more times in this game than in the entire 25/26 league phase of the competition.
No sooner had the Argentinian been hooked on the hour, however, than Jens Petter Hauge, who else, smashed home a delicious effort into the roof of the net which Yann Sommer could get nowhere near.
A fifth goal of his in this season's edition of the competition was more than any other Bodo player, and also meant that he became the third player to score five goals in a UCL campaign for a Norwegian team.
John Carew (1999/00) and Frode Johnsen (2000/01) were the others, both doing so for Rosenborg.
Inter shellshocked as Hogh makes it three
Within three minutes, Kasper Hogh had added a third to leave Inter shellshocked, and if Chivu was looking for reasons why his side had seemingly collapsed, his entire defence winning only four tackles all game might be a good place to start.
Hogh's goal, added to his two assists, saw him become just the second player to be directly involved in three goals in a UCL knockout stage game against Inter after Desire Doue for PSG in last season's final (two goals, one assist).
After Bodo's third went in, Inter at least dominated in every facet, including a whopping 80% of possession; however, not even that or a flurry of substitutions helped to get them back in the game.
Even Alessandro Bastoni's 95 passes - more than any player on the pitch - couldn't help to save his side, who were perhaps a little too complacent ahead of the game, and now face the ignominy of potentially exiting the competition in front of their own fans at San Siro.
With only Bastoni and Barella doing anything like the dirty work in terms of winning the majority of their one-on-ones, it shouldn't really come as a surprise that the Italians were overrun by a team that simply wanted it more.
That in itself is a damning indictment of Chivu's management if nothing else.
Catch up on the match with Flashscore.
