Jude Bellingham’s visit to Anfield certainly didn’t go how he planned – although he did leave Merseyside with a souvenir.
Liverpool continued its sensational start to the season with a dominant performance over Real Madrid. Second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo saw the Reds claim a 2-0 win over the defending European champions, and make it five from five in the Champions League.
The victory means Liverpool is guaranteed at least a play-off spot in the next round, and one more win from their three remaining league phase games should see them go straight through to the last-16.
As for their visitors, it was a night to forget as their big guns failed to live up to their billing. Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe were thoroughly outperformed by their opponents in red, leaving the Spanish giants with a lot of work to do just get through to the knockout stages.
Having touted a ‘Steven Gerrard-esque’ performance before the game, Bellingham found himself coming off second-best to Ryan Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Curtis Jones, and there wasn’t much love for him from the Anfield crowd after his transfer links a year ago.
The England international though did mention to secure a memento of his trip, and it’s one that might leave Liverpool fans a little worried.
Behind-the-scenes footage from the Anfield tunnel has shown Bellingham hanging around the Liverpool dressing room after the game, with the Daily Mail claiming he was hoping to meet up with his good friend Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The midfielder though ended up catching the attention of Gravenberch instead, who entered the dressing room before re-emerging with Alexander-Arnold’s shirt and swapping it with Bellingham.
The Liverpool vice-captain’s links with a move to the Bernabeu were of course one of the intriguing sub-plots to last night’s game. Alexander-Arnold didn’t make his way off the bench in the end, thus avoiding any potential on-pitch meeting with Bellingham which would have sparked more speculation, although the Real star will have created more headlines now with his shirt swap.
Liverpool.com says: Well then, what do we make of this? There was always bound to be some kind of gesture between Alexander-Arnold and Bellingham last night that people could construe as a clue to his future.
Should we take encouragement from the fact that Alexander-Arnold seemingly did everything he could to avoid his good friend, or is Bellingham’s shirt swap a sign that he’s leaning toward a move to the Bernabeu? Only time will tell.