Jude Bellingham lavished praise on Real Madrid duo Aurelien Tchouameni and Raúl Asencio after their side’s thrilling fightback victory over Manchester City.
City suffered yet another collapse in a season that is becoming increasingly defined by capitulation to leave them facing early elimination from the Champions League.
Leading 2-1 with 10 minutes of the game remaining thanks to a brace from Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola’s side threw it away with Brahim Diaz and Bellingham scoring late on to leave Real Madrid in control of the play-off tie.
Real’s triumph was even more impressive given the spate of injuries at the back Carlo Ancelotti was contending with.
Antonio Rudiger, Eder Militao, David Alaba and Dani Carvajal were all ruled out with Lucas Vazquez, another option at right-back, also unavailable.
Federico Valverde dropped into that right-back role with Tchouameni continuing at centre-half alongside 21-year-old Asencio, Ancelotti’s only natural centre-half available who only made his senior debut in November.
While he was full of praise for Real’s entire backline, Bellingham was particularly proud of the pair in the heart of defence.
Speaking to Amazon Prime after the game, Bellingham said: ‘Two of the four defenders were midfielders.
‘Tchouameni plays there most weeks and it is really difficult to adapt to that position especially when you are playing against one of the best nines of this generation [in Erling Haaland].
‘I thought he was brilliant as well as Asencio. He has been playing first team football for four months and comes away to the Etihad and plays like that. So I am very proud of all four of them especially those two.’
Bellingham added: ‘We were paying well in the game, creating a lot of chances so we felt one would land. We are always confident something will drop for us.’
Real will hope to put the tie to bed when they welcome City to the Bernabeu next Wednesday.