Football Digest: Bellingham flourishing for club and country
Jude Bellingham has enjoyed a remarkable start to life at Real Madrid. Five goals and one assist in his first five matches for the Spanish giants have further elevated the stock of England’s most coveted star.
It was Real Madrid who won the battle for Bellingham’s signature in the summer, completing a huge deal to sign the 20-year-old from Borussia Dortmund for an initial £88.5million. Liverpool dropped out of the race before the window started over the likely cost of an eye-watering transfer.
Real’s big-money move for the midfielder has been fully justified by his start. Bellingham struck a debut goal and proceeded to score in each of his next three matches, a run that finally ended in Los Blancos’ 2-1 win over Real Sociedad last weekend.
But Bellingham might come up against his toughest challenge yet on Wednesday night. In Union Berlin defender Leonardo Bonucci, Bellingham will find one of England’s Euro 2020 nemeses hoping to cause a major upset at the Bernabeu.
READ MORE: Bellingham was ‘rejected’ by Champions League giant due to 17-year-old ‘diamond'[LATEST]
Bonucci signed for the German underdogs in the summer to add some much-needed experience to the squad ahead of a historic campaign. Union Berlin, who have spent most of their recent history in the lower divisions of the German football pyramid, are in the Champions League for the first time.
Some will argue that their first outing in the competition could not be harder. A visit to the 14-time champions will bring out the underdog mentality that has seen Union Berlin drastically overachieve in recent years.
And that will be led by the former Juventus star Bonucci. The 36-year-old was once fed garlic sweets by his motivational coach ahead of his biggest matches, in an apparent attempt to put off the opposition.
Alberto Ferrarini, who worked with Bonucci during his time at Juve, said ahead of a clash against Roma in 2021: “On Saturday night we spent three hours in the hotel to prepare for the game. Any new secrets? When we finished our work I gave Leonardo some garlic sweets. Natural products, inedible.
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“The soldiers of hundreds of years ago ate garlic to remain strong, healthy and lucid in battle. Leo is a soldier, a warrior and eating the sweets is as if he is returning to those origins.
“I told him to breathe in the face of [Roma forwards] Gervinho and Totti… the most important thing was to achieve the objective, to win.”
It remains to be seen if Bonucci will use the tactic against the in-form Bellingham. Real will certainly face one of their toughest tests of the campaign so far against the Champions League newcomers.
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