Jude Bellingham on Sunday snatched Real Madrid a dramatic 3-2 El Clasico win over champions Barcelona with a “fundamental” goal to take them 11 points clear at the top of La Liga.
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti hailed the England midfielder’s decisive intervention to take Los Blancos to the brink of the Spanish title.
Real Madrid twice came from behind with Vinicius Junior and Lucas Vazquez netting to level strikes by Andreas Christensen and Fermin Lopez, before Bellingham rammed home the winner in stoppage time.
Photo: AFP
“He arrived at just the right time, he worked so hard in the game. It’s been a while since he scored, and today he scored a goal that could be fundamental in winning the league,” Ancelotti said.
Barcelona, second on the table, bounced back with a strong performance after their UEFA Champions League exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain, but their last stand was demolished by Bellingham.
Real Madrid showed the same grit to stay in the match as they did in their midweek game against Manchester City on the way to the final four in Europe, before Bellingham’s knock-out blow left the Santiago Bernabeu crowd delighted.
Real Madrid’s top scorer with 21 goals across all competitions, the 20-year-old former Borussia Dortmund man netted twice in Real Madrid’s El Clasico win over Barcelona in October last year and is shining in his first season in Spain.
“We took a huge step towards La Liga,” Vazquez, key in all three Real Madrid goals, told Real Madrid TV.
“We’ve had a very good season, we’re on a very good path, now we just have to polish it off and we’ll go for everything,” he said.
Earlier Atletico Madrid suffered a 2-0 defeat at Deportivo Alaves to dent their chances of a top four finish and end a woeful week, following their Champions League exit.
Diego Simeone’s side, fourth, lead fifth place Athletic Bilbao by three points after Carlos Benavidez and Luis Rioja’s strikes consigned them to defeat.
“We’re in a terrible dynamic,” Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak told DAZN. “We have to improve and if we don’t, this end to the season will be very tough.”
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS