Topics: Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, England
Real Madrid sensation Jude Bellingham had a brilliant response to being labelled a "tap in merchant".
Bellingham scored a stunning brace in his first El Clasico fixture against Barcelona on Saturday as Real came from 1-0 down to claim a huge win at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
Ilkay Gundogan had opened the scoring early on for the La Liga champions but Bellingham came up clutch in the second half.
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Having been fairly quiet in the game, the 20-year old rifled in an outstanding 25-yard strike past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in the 68th minute.
His trademark celebration came out in stoppage time when Bellingham popped up with a last-gasp winner.
It was his 13th goal in the same amount of games since signing for Real in an £88 million switch.
However, despite his quality displayed, some have given Bellingham the "tap-in merchant" tag given a few of his strikes have been from close-range.
Real mocked that label by writing "Our tap-in merchant" on X, adding a video of Bellingham discussing his goals in the game and addressing his tap-in goals in a mature manner.
He said: "I'll probably say the first one. I can imagine everyone battering me for the second one, I know I get a lot of grief about scoring tap-ins.
"When everyone stood still I was on the move. You create your own luck and you create your own opportunities and I've done it again for the second goal.
"The first one was finally a bit better, a bit more classy."
Bellingham has now surpassed Zinedine Zidane's best goalscoring season for Real after a seamless transition into Spanish football.
And manager Carlo Ancelotti has already set him a big target for his tally come the end of the season.
Speaking after the win, Ancelotti said: "He can easily reach 20-25 goals. 'We don't have in mind that he is a scorer or a striker. He is scoring, but we wait for the rest of us to score goals.
"Bellingham plays like a veteran. He's got a fantastic attitude."
