Jude Bellingham admitted Real Madrid were “lucky” to only concede three goals in their 3-0 Champions League quarterfinal first leg defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday.
Declan Rice scored two second-half free kicks — the first direct free kicks of his professional career — and Mikel Merino added a late third at the Emirates Stadium to put Arsenal in a commanding position ahead of next week’s second leg at the Bernabéu.
Madrid, who are the reigning European champions, have a history of stirring Champions League comebacks, but have never overturned a 3-0 first leg deficit in the competition.
“We were nowhere near [our level], and Arsenal were really good,” Bellingham told CBS. “They could have had way more. We were lucky to get away with three. There is a second leg, that’s the thing we’re holding onto. We’re going to need something unbelievably special, something crazy.”
The 15-time Champions League winners were stunned by Arsenal’s three goals in 17 second-half minutes, after a goalless first half which saw Kylian Mbappé spurn a one-on-one with David Raya, and keeper Thibaut Courtois make a smart double save before the break.
The newspaper Diario AS said Madrid would be “obliged to perform another miracle” in the second leg.
Madrid’s run to the Champions League final in 2022 saw them pull off three consecutive comebacks in ties against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City.
The team are second in LaLiga and have reached the Copa del Rey final, but have also underperformed in some high-profile games, losing both Clásicos so far with Barcelona.
“It’s similar kind of themes that have happened to us all season when we’ve dropped points,” Bellingham told TNT. “It’s happened again tonight on a larger scale. We’re going to need something special to turn it around, but special things can happen in football. And if there’s one place where it can, it’s at our house.
“They had a good game plan. They did a really good job at analysing how we would try and press them, they made a little change which helped them progress the ball forward more and that gave them more chance to have more waves of attacks and take more risks especially when the ball went wide. Credit to them, they were brilliant. Even besides the free kicks, which are rare to score, they had a load more chances they could have punished us with.”
Madrid next play Alavés in LaLiga on Sunday, before hosting Arsenal at the Bernabéu next Wednesday.
