The Englishman achieved a milestone in the 5-1 UCL win over Real Madrid, but he is still short of team-mate Kylian Mbappe.
Real Madrid continued their high-scoring run of recent form with a 5-1 defeat of RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday. Madrid have now scored 27 goals in their last six games, although that run also included a bracing 5-2 defeat to Barcelona in the Supercopa final.
Rodrygo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Junior were all among the goals against Leipzig, but there was also a nice milestone for Jude Bellingham, who played a nonchalant back-heel pass to set up Rodrygo's second goal.
That assist was Bellingham's thirteenth in the Champions League and he set up a further eleven goals. Those 24 goals put him level with Lionel Messi at the age of 21, at which point the Argentine had 17 goals and seven assists.
Bellingham is now tied for third on the list and doesn't turn 22 until June, so he has plenty of time to improve his current score. He could well catch Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, who scored 26 UCL goals at the age of 21. But he still has a long way to go to overtake the current leader.
Real Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappé holds the Champions League record for most goals at the age of 21 and has a big lead. During his early career at Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain, Mbappé scored an impressive 37 goals.
After a mixed start in Spain, Mbappe has come on fire in recent weeks with five goals in Madrid's last four games. The Frenchman can work well with the likes of Bellingham, Vinicius and Rodrygo and Real Madrid look well positioned to challenge for the Champions League again.
“His adjustment period is over,” head coach Carlo Ancelotti recently said of Mbappé. “He is already showing how good he is, although he can still improve. He has recovered from his last injury and to me he seems more motivated now, he is more excited.”
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