Jude Bellingham's reaction after Carlo Ancelotti took him off early during Real Madrid's 3-1 loss to AC Milan in the Champions League has revealed a lot.
After a week-long break, the Champions League returned on Tuesday night as several of Europe's top clubs competed in the fourth matchday of the new format.
In a shock result, Italian giants AC Milan travelled to the Santiago Bernabeu and beat Real Madrid 3-1, marking their second consecutive defeat after the 4-0 loss to Barcelona in El Classico last month.
And now, a clip has emerged online of Real Madrid star Bellingham's reaction to being taken off early during the match, and it speaks volumes about his current feelings about the club and manager Ancelotti.
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Immediately after Tijjani Reijnders scored Milan's third goal of the match in the 73rd minute, sealing the result, Ancelotti decided to take Bellingham off, frustrating the Englishman.
And in a viral clip of the moment, the 21-year-old is seen kicking a water bottle in anger as soon as he came off the pitch, showing his disappointment at his side's poor performance.
Despite a massively impressive first season with Los Blancos, Bellingham has struggled in the 2023/24 season and it was no different on Tuesday night.
The midfielder was not involved in Madrid's only goal in the game and didn't register a single shot on target during the match.
In 11 appearances across all competitions this season, Bellingham is yet to score a goal for Madrid and has managed just three assists.
Comparatively, he scored an incredible 23 goals and assisted another 13 in 42 appearances in all competitions last season.
His performances last season led to him finishing third in the 2024 Ballon d'Or rankings, behind teammate Vinicius Junior, the goalscorer for Madrid on Tuesday, and Manchester City's Rodri.
But despite his lacklustre performances this season, Ancelotti has said he isn't worried about his star player and that he is still happy with how he has played this season.
Speaking ahead of Madrid's previous Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund, he said: "We're satisfied with his work, I'm very satisfied. He works a lot, he's always present, he competes, he fights, he sacrifices himself.
"It's true he hasn't scored the goals he scored last year, but the surprise isn't this year, the surprise was last year, when he scored lots of goals which nobody expected and helped us a lot."
Topics: Real Madrid, Jude Bellingham, Carlo Ancelotti, AC Milan, Champions League, Football
Ben McCrum