Jude Bellingham has confirmed that he was involved in an heated confrontation with Real Madrid teammate Antonio Rudiger on the training ground last week as they prepare to face Arsenal.
Los Blancos welcome the Premier League outfit to the Bernabeu on Wednesday for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie after losing 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
Real prepared for the clash with a 1-0 win over Deportivo Alaves, although they were reduced to ten men in the first half when Kylian Mbappe was sent off for an horrendous challenge.
Ahead of that LaLiga match, reports in Spain claimed that Bellingham and Rudiger had a dustup in training that had to be broken up by teammates. The Germany international put in a bad tackle on the attacking midfielder, who reacted angrily, according to El Chiringuito.
Jude Bellingham opens up on dustup with Antonio Rudiger
However, it was not believed to be a serious incident, which Bellingham corroborated when speaking to media on Tuesday.
“It’s football, it’s normal on the pitch that emotions get high,” the 21-year-old said. “You communicate with teammates louder than you’d communicate with your mum and dad.
“For every negative interaction you see, there’s 20 positive interactions. That will get lost in the media which is fine, as long as the team respects each other to have those honest conversations.”
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Only four teams have ever overturned a deficit of three or more goals to progress in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, but Real retain full belief they can be the fifth. But Bellingham says they must take lessons from a hugely disappointing first leg to do so against Arsenal.
“There wasn’t one aspect of our game in the first leg that was up to the standard we expect of ourselves,” he admitted.
“We know we can play a lot better and that’s what we want to show tomorrow. It’s one thing to lose, but it’s another thing not to learn.”
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