Jude Bellingham has revealed what he finds “so difficult” about facing Manchester City after Real Madrid beat them on penalties.
Ahead of the contest, Bellingham pointed out City’s quality across the pitch as a factor that makes them a difficult opponent.
However, every time any player comes up against a Pep Guardiola team, they are more than likely to undergo a challenging time.
Jamie Carragher also claimed that in his eyes, Manchester City are a better team than Real Madrid.
But as is commonplace in football, results-based discourse often takes over, unlike what Carragher has done.
While the winners of penalty shootouts cannot be attributed to having a lucky day, in essence, it is the closest thing to the toss of a coin when two teams face each other in football.
Real Madrid star Bellingham shares why City are “so difficult” to face
On Wednesday, Real Madrid took superior penalties than that of Manchester City.
While Andriy Lunin showcased once again why he is an expert at saving spot-kicks.
The Ukrainian seemingly did his research on Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic’s previous penalties and emerged as Los Blancos’ hero on the night.
But it would be disingenuous to claim that City did not give the visitors a hard time at the Etihad Stadium in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final.
The Sky Blues did not have that many clear-cut goalscoring opportunities.
However, they certainly created some and Carlo Ancelotti’s side rarely defend as much during a game as they did against Pep Guardiola’s men.
After Real Madrid narrowly defeated Manchester City, Jude Bellingham told TNT Sports why they are such a tough team to play against.
“It’s so difficult because they are continuously probing with the ball, they move you around and they take you into positions you don’t want to go but you have to follow man for man, otherwise they can punish you and they did for the goal”, he said.
“Most teams at that point would fall apart when City get on top of you and the crowd gets going, but we stood up really well and for another half an hour or 40 minutes, we worked hard.”
Jude Bellingham is spot on
As Jude Bellingham said, Manchester City certainly did cause problems for Real Madrid with how they manipulated their defensive shape with their passing.
Often, their switches of play caused Los Merengues a headache, especially as Jack Grealish and later, Jeremy Doku were very impactful.
The same can be said for how the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden also caused them issues defensively, which often stemmed from intricate bits of passing between the lines.
As Bellingham stated, the way Manchester City probed with the ball caused even teams like Real Madrid to worry as they kept Carlo Ancelotti and Co. on their toes at the back.