diff --git a/roles/bodhi2/backend/templates/pungi.rpm.conf.j2 b/roles/bodhi2/backend/templates/pungi.rpm.conf.j2
index 2c08860b35..93638c4ef2 100644
--- a/roles/bodhi2/backend/templates/pungi.rpm.conf.j2
+++ b/roles/bodhi2/backend/templates/pungi.rpm.conf.j2
@@ -73,6 +73,11 @@ createrepo_database = True
 [% if release.version_int >= 30 %]
 createrepo_extra_args = ['--zck', '--zck-dict-dir=/usr/share/fedora-repo-zdicts/f[[ release.version_int ]]']
 [% endif %]
+# For epel8 we want to use xz compression for repodata
+# https://pagure.io/epel/issue/71
+[% if release.version_int == 8 %]
+createrepo_extra_args = ['--xz']
+[% endif %]
 
 # CHECKSUMS
 media_checksums = ['sha256']