Haaland heaps praise on Bellingham after win: "He's incredible."
Young English phenom Jude Bellingham was unquestionably the man-of-the-evening in Istanbul on Wednesday night.
The 18-year-old who scored the opening goal and set-up the second earned deserved praise from a teammate that, when compared with the teenage sensation, looks like a veteran.
The 18-year-old who scored the opening goal and set-up the second earned deserved praise from a teammate that, when compared with the teenage sensation, looks like a veteran.
| Jude Bellingham. |
At the age of 18 years and 78 days, this makes Bellingham the youngest player ever to score in two consecutive UCL fixtures; even younger than Kylian Mbappé when the French phenom accomplished the feat.
"He's three years younger than me," Erling Haaland mused into the post-match mic, "That's crazy! He's incredible!"
Head-coach Marco Rose, just like predecessor Lucien Favre, could only gush. The BVB trainer simply labelled Bellingham a "cool lad".
Bellingham's performance under pressure wasn't merely "cool". In front of a raucous crowd of 22,000 fans at Istabul's Vodaphone Arena, the highly-focused technical work put into both his opening goal and the assist on Haaland's shortly before the end of the half could be described as "ice-veined."
None of the pressures associated with the atmosphere fazed the youngster. He alluded to the importance of tuning out distractions in his own post-match interview.
"We were simply more ruthless," he noted.
