Amid the sound and fury of another enthralling Champions League game at the Etihad, this was also the perfect chance to assess the merits of Jude Bellingham, Europe’s most exciting young player, against those of Kevin De Bruyne, the Premier League’s finest midfielder of recent years.
They are separated by 12 years, at 20 and 32 years of age respectively, but the importance they have to their teams cannot be underplayed.
We all know about De Bruyne of course, the man who has made Manchester City tick for the best part of a decade. But if, at any time in the past 70-odd years of this competition, you’d have suggested that Real Madrid’s best player, technically and tactically, was an Englishman, you would have been laughed out of town.
So it is scarcely credible that Bellingham, the boy from Birmingham who has yet to reach his 21st birthday, strides like a colossus across the pitch, the most influential Madridista already in his first season at the club, reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane in the way he moves and dictates play. He also wears the famous number five shirt.
And just like Zizou, Bellingham has a delicate touch that belies his size. He demonstrated it to devastating effect when Rodrygo scored the 12th minute goal that stunned City’s supporters.
Dani Carvajal’s hopeful punt down the middle needed expert control and Bellingham did not disappoint, taking the dropping ball down with an exquisite touch, turning in an instant and setting Federico Valverde away.
When the ball reached Vinicius Junior in space on the right, a goal was on the cards, and Rodrygo eventually put the ball away.
For an hour, Bellingham ran the show from the centre of the pitch as majestically as Luka Modric used to do.
Despite their shootout win,
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