It wasn’t a classic but the chorus from the Santiago Bernabéu was. It had been a while and they had missed moments such as this – but for the first time since April Fool’s Day, Jude Bellingham stood before the south end with his arms wide, listening to them sing Hey Jude. There had been a shoulder injury, doubts about his role too, but now he had scored his first goal of the season, ultimately taking Real Madrid to a 1-0 win against a Juventus team that aren’t what they once were but who made a match of it. “We had to sweat for it,” Thibaut Courtois said.
He knew better than anyone, having to rescue a one‑on‑one from Dusan Vlahovic and make another decisive save from Khéphren Thuram in the very last minute to leave Madrid on nine points and Igor Tudor’s side below the cut in this league phase. At the end of a match with more shots than football, the Juventus manager may reflect on a decent start, those saves a great opportunity wasted on 85 minutes; their reality, though, makes worrying reading.
