{"id":38689,"date":"2023-10-09T18:03:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T22:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=38689"},"modified":"2023-10-09T18:04:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T22:04:06","slug":"champions-league-matchweek-2-is-bellingham-the-best-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/10\/09\/champions-league-matchweek-2-is-bellingham-the-best-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League Matchweek #2: Is Bellingham the best in the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photo via SOPA IMAGES\/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Adriana Leyba Macedo<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Last week’s Champions League matches left spectators with a lot to comment on. From Newcastle\u2019s 4-1 victory against PSG in the Oil-Clasico to Braga\u2019s last-minute winner against Union Berlin, it truly did not matter which game people watched; they were, for sure, entertained. The Champions League is truly the king of competitions, and who better to be considered the king of kings than Real Madrid?<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people avoid the question, but it must be asked: Is Jude Bellingham the best player in the world at the moment? Since becoming a Madridista, the Englishman has scored 10 goals in his first 10 games; a statistic last accomplished by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009. Bellingham\u2019s performance in the Champions League against Napoli did not disappoint.<\/span><\/p>\n

Los Blancos found themselves trailing on the scoreboard within the first 20 minutes. Even though Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s team has almost a perfect record this season so far, there seems to be a real problem when it comes to conceding goals in the first half. Thus far, Madrid has been obligated to make dramatic comebacks in many of their games.<\/span><\/p>\n

With that said, Madrid\u2019s response to Napoli\u2019s goal could be described as perfect. The team kept their composure and managed to control the midfield while remaining solid in defense. The first Madrid goal came from a Bellingham possession recovery in Napoli\u2019s half. Jude\u2019s physicality not only allows him to stand out in offense but makes him a great defensive resource. He then assisted Vinicius Jr. to tie the match.<\/span><\/p>\n

From then on, Madrid planted themselves as a dominant figure in the game. Bellingham scored the second goal, and the third goal came from a beautiful shot outside the box by Valverde. The game finished 3 to 2, meaning Los Blancos are still unbeaten in this championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Year after year, Madrid seems to restate themselves as favorites. And they do this in a peculiar manner. They don’t have the best defense, coaching staff, or the most potent attack (they literally do not have a starting nine); yet when they go out on the field, the players transmit such confidence that it makes people wonder if they might actually be the best.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Real Madrid and Barcelona are the only two Spanish teams to have won their first two Champions games, the rest have not done badly for themselves. Atl\u00e9tico de Madrid and Real Sociedad achieved their first wins, while Sevilla only managed to get away with a tie against PSV.<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of these teams, the one to keep an eye on is Real Sociedad. The Basques could be this year\u2019s \u201cdark horse.\u201d They have such amazing individual talents in their team. Last week, we talked about Takefusa Kubo and what it meant for Real to have a player of that caliber. This week\u2019s protagonist was midfielder Martin Zubimendi who controlled the rhythm of the whole game. Noticias Gipuzkoa’s front page added: \u201cZubimendi is no longer just one of the best in his position in La Liga but one of the best in the entire world.” They lead their knockout group by goal difference, but they definitely have to keep an eye out for Inter Milan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though the La Liga teams had a very successful week, people still look at the Premier when picking their favorites to win it all. Even though Manchester City and Newcastle attained the three points, Arsenal and Manchester United performed very badly.<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot is expected from the Gunners this year since it’s their first time back in the competition in about seven years. Even though they did well in their first match, they lost 2 to 1 against Lens this week. The game was completely compromised by Saka\u2019s injury. Even though Mikel Arteta is one of the most tactically gifted coaches in the world, his dependence on Saka\u2019s right-wing abilities to fabricate attacks has become obscene.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other side of the coin, United\u2019s loss cannot be traced back to a specific moment in the game. As more time passes, it seems that Erik ten Hag\u2019s capability to deal with the locker room is not good. The coach\u2019s two seasons at the club have been plagued by controversies, from the messy Cristiano Ronaldo exit to the possibility of Mason Greenwood coming. Yet, he still had the support of a huge part of the fanbase due to his results. Now, United is no longer getting the desired results, so we have to ask ourselves\u2026 will Ten Hag sell his Manchester home by the end of the season?<\/span><\/p>\n

With that said, Spanish teams seem to be competing head-to-head with all the other big teams in Europe. The decline in Arsenal and Manchester United\u2019s European performance leads me to believe that, out of all the Premier League teams, only Manchester City is a serious contender. Only time will tell, but for now, we just have to enjoy Jude Bellingham and the king competition: the Champions League<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo via SOPA IMAGES\/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES) By Adriana Leyba Macedo Last week’s Champions League matches left spectators with a lot to comment on. From Newcastle\u2019s 4-1 victory against PSG in the Oil-Clasico to Braga\u2019s last-minute winner against Union Berlin, it truly did not matter which game people watched; they were, for sure, entertained. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21324,"featured_media":38690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1024,1035,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38691,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38689\/revisions\/38691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}