Jude Bellingham’s dream start to life at Real Madrid continued as his mesmerising solo goal helped the Spanish giants down Napoli to make it two wins from two in this season’s Champions League.
Having grabbed a last-gasp winner to see off Union Berlin a fortnight ago, Bellingham first teed up Vinicius Junior to score after Leo Ostigard had put Napoli ahead at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Bellingham then stole the show as he collected the ball on halfway, drove forward into the area and bulldozed his way through Ostigard before tucking into the corner and although a contentiously-awarded penalty scored by Piotr Zielinski pegged Real back, the visitors won 3-2 following Alex Meret’s own goal.
🫲 @BellinghamJude's season so far: 🫱
Goals: 8️⃣
Assists: 3️⃣
Hearts stolen: ♾ pic.twitter.com/7ZTh9Wsk7O— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) October 3, 2023
Advertisement
Victory sent Real top of Group C, where Union Berlin went down to another stoppage-time goal as Andre Castro sealed a 3-2 triumph for Braga, who hit back from 2-0 down to win in the German capital.
Sheraldo Becker’s brace put the hosts in charge but Sikou Niakate and Armindo Bruma drew the Portuguese side level before Castro struck in the fourth minute of time added on to break Union hearts.
Bayern Munich avoided a banana skin after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Copenhagen, with Jamal Musiala and substitute Mathys Tel cancelling out Lukas Lerager’s goal.
The Bundesliga side top Group A, where Manchester United’s stuttering start to the campaign continued after an error-strewn defeat at home to Galatasaray.
Rasmus Hojlund scored a superb second after his opener was cancelled out by Galatasaray’s grinning former United forward Wilfried Zaha, only for Ten Hag’s men to spectacularly unravel.
Roller coaster of emotions! Important 2:1 win in Copenhagen. 👍🏼⚽️😀 #fcbayern #ucl #esmuellert pic.twitter.com/Jg1K3njTp3
— Thomas Müller (@esmuellert_) October 3, 2023
Kerem Akturkoglu equalised and summer signing Andre Onana’s atrocious pass out straight to Dries Mertens led to a poor Casemiro recovery challenge that saw the Brazil midfielder sent off and a penalty awarded.
The goalkeeper was relieved to see Mauro Icardi strike the spot-kick wide, but he swiftly made amends as United fell to a third Old Trafford loss of the campaign.
It was a forgettable night for Premier League teams as Arsenal lost 2-1 at Lens in Group B. Gabriel Jesus put the Gunners ahead but Adrien Thomasson and Elye Wahi gave Lens all three points.
Jordan Teze’s stoppage-time goal lifted PSV Eindhoven to a 2-2 draw at home to Sevilla, who twice went ahead through Nemanja Gudelj and Youssef En-Nesyri only to be pegged back.
Luuk de Jong’s penalty looked to be vain until Teze popped up in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Marcus Thuram gave Inter Milan a 1-0 Group D victory over Benfica, while Mikel Oyarzabal and Brais Mendez ushered Real Sociedad to a 2-0 win at Red Bull Salzburg.
