Clasico only the latest Bellingham magic since Madrid debut،
Jude Bellingham, the man who won the Clasico for Real Madrid on Saturday, has just one problem since his transcendental €103 million move to La Liga this summer.
Coincidentally, if you bear with me, it was in the post-match interview after his late winner against Union Berlin in the Champions League. I asked him if it wouldn’t be better for his blood pressure (and everyone else’s) if he started scoring a few goals earlier in matches rather than his – admittedly sensational – habit of scoring the winner in time. additional.
Already beaming with a heady cocktail of pure endorphins and joy, clutching his Man of the Match trophy, he burst out laughing and said: “I suppose it would be better for everyone’s well-being if I was starting to score in the 47th or 60th minute… but I’m perfectly happy to keep producing late winners!”
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” Said with an effervescent joviality, typical of the charm and sheer exuberance “life gives me a wonderful gift” that the 20-year-old Englishman has demonstrated since ignoring Manchester City’s pleas and signing for the place for Madrid, neither I nor Bellingham understood that there was a different, even better answer.
Why not do both? Why not emerge with a thunderous long-range shot to tie a Clasico against Barcelona — and then also add a winner in injury time?
It truly is Bellingham’s world and everyone is lucky to live there.
The sentence he added that evening, after one of his many performances with friends, was: “I’ve had my own television at home since I was 12 or 13 and ever since watching Real Madrid win against all odds when you ask yourself: “Wow! How did they come back from that?”
This victory, his victoryOn Saturday, beating Barcelona 2-1 wasn’t quite in that category.
Almost from the moment Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti started making substitutions, happily ignoring the idea that perhaps it wasn’t Bellingham’s day given how well Gavi was playing against him quite sensationally, the Clasico suddenly tilted sharply towards Madrid.
What is quite special is how a “newbie” – a relatively young, foreigner who is still coming to terms with a new language, a new culture, one of the most political and political clubs most demanding players in the world and who had a relatively difficult and discouraging afternoon – can still produce moments of genius in a bottle like these and win an away match Clasico.
If any of you start taking what’s happening for granted because Bellingham has been so important, so impressive, then please pinch yourself. Think again.
When I was first asked on LaLiga TV in August to sum up what I thought of the Englishman’s impact on his new club and La Liga, I replied: “I think a phenomenon has happened.” That’s what I thought and I’m not taking away a millimeter of meaning or emphasis.
When Bellingham came home The Whites“First goal on Saturday, amid the tumult, Nacho turned to his fellow substitutes on the Madrid bench and simply said: “Mother mia!“I think that phrase has a universal understanding – it’s absolute, pure and simple wonder.
Nacho may not be revered as the most competent or technically gifted guy in Madrid, OK. But if you watch his world-class long-range goal for Spain against Portugal at the 2018 World Cup, I think you’ll be touched by how a guy capable of scoring a goal that powerful, that good, remains stunned by what Bellingham has done.
I once interviewed the legendary Johan Cruyff at his home in Upper Zone — the chic side — from Barcelona, and during an hour-long conversation I asked him: “Who was your toughest rival?” Without any hesitation, he named Berti Vogts, the fierce 1974 World Cup-winning full-back. “Why so?” I answered. Cruyff said, grimacing at the memory: “Because you would pivot and turn and produce a skill and be free of him and then, in a split second, he would be there again, somehow, slamming and growling at my ankles.”
It was Cruyff’s 50th birthday Clasico his debut as a Barcelona player while Bellingham was doing his magic stuff in the Olympic Stadium. If the wonderful Dutchman had still been with us, he would have smiled as he watched Gavi produce a Vogts-style masterclass on the Englishman – for about 95% of the match, of course.
When Barcelona was on the rise, Gavi was its architect. When they stand together, the eye will lead you to believe that the 19-year-old Spaniard could fit perfectly in Bellingham’s pocket. Instead, he combined Bellingham’s harassment and pressure into temporary frustration, while adding good distribution, boundless energy and a flick of the ball to Toni Kroos’ toes so that Fermín López could fire a shot on the right post of goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Neither that nor Iñigo Martínez’s header at the other end of the pitch doubled Barcelona’s lead and therein lies the beauty of Madrid’s victory.
Barcelona manager Xavi Hernández’s argument then went like this: “It’s a simple summary: we dominated for 60 minutes and scored once, then they had a good 25 minutes and scored twice. We played good football, our performance deserved more, but that’s all about efficiency. Right now, Bellingham is in a state of grace.
There was another very important moment for the home team, which came to nothing, when the VAR team missed a very clear penalty committed by Real Madrid midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni on Ronald Araújo.
But in these times of accusations and smears – when all of us who love football want to be convincingly assured that the accusations made in the La Liga referee corruption scandal, which is so damaging to the reputation of the Spanish football, are either false or can be categorically proven and then prosecuted – it must be said that the referee, Jesus Gil Manzano, was excellent throughout.
He allowed robust challenges, he was close enough to all the action to avoid being fooled by players crying and throwing themselves to the ground, and his officiating was precisely what his big boss, Luis Medina Cantelejo, demands officials. The directive was fewer minor fouls, more decisions with the same criteria that we regularly see in England, Germany or the Champions League. The aim is fewer saves, a better pace of matches, fewer footballers thinking they can fool the referees and, overall, a better spectacle.
This is unequivocally what we had at the Olympic Stadium: the entertainment was Citius, Altius, Fortius(“Faster, higher, stronger” as the Olympic motto says).
It seemed expected that – on the day Rolling Stones stars Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood, both born in the same country as young Bellingham, were watching – there would be a strong English theme to the film. Clasico. Barcelona sported the Stones logo on the front of their jersey, as required by their sponsor Spotify, but a different musical theme also emerged.
It could have been Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams”, Blondie’s “Dreaming” or the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” as they all capture the feeling felt by the two scorers in the first game. Clasico of the season.
As a child in Turkey, Ilkay Gündoğan used to gather in his parents’ living room, where the television was playing on Champions League evenings, to watch the Barcelona match and let his mind wander to the idea that one day , he could wear this item of clothing. Blaugrana band. He once told me that he was only allowed to sit on the floor because the couches and chairs were all occupied by siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents – all fascinated by the way Barcelona played back then.
This is why Gündoğan rejected a queue of clubs, many of whom offered him a higher salary, and also turned down the chance to stay at Manchester City with a renewed contract to sign with Barça on a free transfer this summer. He followed his dream, then he followed Tchouameni’s unfortunate interception of the ball, with Dani Carvajal and David Alaba half exposed, half dozed and bounced the ball under Kepa for 1-0.
It turns out that either Bellingham’s dream was bigger, or stronger, or younger, or luckier – take your pick.
Ultimately, last summer Bellingham didn’t want to stay at Dortmund, he didn’t want to join Liverpool and he didn’t even consider playing for Pep Guardiola and adding his shine to the reigning treble holders. . Bellingham, like David Beckham and Gareth Bale before him, aspired to play for The Whites — to add his name to the countless legendary players who made this club the most successful in history.
It’s certainly not the first time this season that Real Madrid have had to give thanks to the power of dreams and then hum a few bars of “Hey Jude. To paraphrase that eternal Beatles anthem, even on a Rolling Stones afternoon, the move he needed was on the shoulder of the last Barcelona defender just as Luka Modric inadvertently bounced the ball off Martinez, then he made the world of Barça a little colder.
