Bellingham gives shock reasons for defeat to ‘the best-performing team in Europe’
Jude Bellingham believes Real Madrid deserved to lose to Liverpool in the Champions League due to a difference in attitude and tactical approach at Anfield.
Defending champions Real suffered their third defeat in five Champions League games on Wednesday, falling to a deserved defeat against Liverpool.
Bellingham was ineffective against a team which tried desperately to sign him a couple of years ago, a struggle he put down to a lack of “control” and regular turnovers when trying to counter-attack.
“They were more up for it than us to be honest,” he told TNT Sports.
“It’s a bad result against the best-performing team in Europe. It’s no disgrace to come here and lose but we are disappointed in the way how we performed.
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“From the first minute, they took control of the game. We never really maximised the spells we had in possession. When we got the ball back we tried to force a counter-attack a few too many times.
“We turned it over so much that they managed to keep control. Defensively they kept us in a place where we couldn’t really harm them as much.”
Bellingham also absolved Kylian Mbappe of blame for his penalty miss in the second half when Real were trailing 1-0, with Caoimhin Kelleher producing a wonderful save to preserve his clean sheet.
“The pressure he holds because of how good he is huge, it’s humungous,” Bellingham said.
“The penalty is not the reason why we lost the game. As a collective we weren’t good enough on the night. They performed better than us and it’s as simple as that.
“Kylian can keep his head high. I know for sure he will produce many more moments that are huge for this club.”
Bellingham swapped shirts with England teammate and close friend Trent Alexander-Arnold after the game through Ryan Gravenberch, despite the Liverpool right-back not actually coming off the bench at Anfield.
Conor Bradley fared well enough in his stead, clattering Mbappe with a first-half challenge to set the tone.
Real manager Carlo Ancelotti sought to defend the Frenchman after the game, saying: “This has happened before in my career many times, forwards when you are a striker you want to score and get a bit of confidence.
“There is a medicine which is a difficult moment for him, I think Mbappe, it is a difficult moment we have to support him and give him our love, he will soon be fine.
“It could be a lack of confidence maybe, sometimes maybe when you have moments when things aren’t working out, the idea is to keep things simple, don’t complicate life.
“You don’t need to blame him for missing penalties, people miss penalties, it happens a lot.”
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