Jude Bellingham outplays fellow countryman Marcus Rashford to help carry Real Madrid to 2-1 victory in historic Clásico.
For the first time in history, El Clásico saw two Englishmen competing for opposing teams: Marcus Rashford for Barcelona FC and Jude Bellingham in white for Real Madrid CF. After a characteristically eventful match, it was Bellingham who came out on top.
While the two players are no strangers to each other, having played together twelve times previously, this was their first meeting as rivals.
Both players came into Sunday’s match off the back of strong performances. Despite coming into this season recently recovered from shoulder surgery, Bellingham seems to be back on top form, scoring the winning goal for his team in their meeting with Juventus earlier this week. Rashford perhaps looked even stronger coming into El Clásico following two fantastic goals in Barca’s steamrolling performance against Olympiacos just one day earlier.
However, it was in fact Jude who pipped his compatriot this weekend. Involved in both of Real Madrid’s goals; scoring one and assisting Mbappé in the other, Bellingham was instrumental in his team’s tide-turning success. While Rashford did set up the all-important equalising goal scored by Fermín López in the 38th minute, he was unable to convert any of his own chances into goals.
Having finally redeemed themselves after four painful consecutive Clásico losses, Real Madrid now pull ahead of Barcelona by a further three points to give them a five-point total lead in the league.
This British face-off is undeniably relevant considering England Manager Thomas Tuchel’s decision to omit Jude from the national squad ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers. Having quoted a “lack of rhythm” as his reasoning, it will be interesting to see if Tuchel reconsiders his lineup now the Bellingham is back in business and firing with all guns blazing.
