Flagside.football
LaLiga — Bellingham, the bar, and Ancelotti's silence.

Bellingham, the bar, and Ancelotti's silence.

Real Madrid come to San Mamés, leave with one point, and spend the drive home watching Jude Bellingham's shot bounce off the crossbar on a loop. Barcelona's lead just got a little more comfortable.

By Mia Ferreira· LaLiga & Serie A·Published ·Updated ·1 MIN READ

The game

It finishes 1-1 at San Mamés, and the scoreline flatters nobody. Athletic Club are what they always are here — physical, loud, genuinely awkward — and Real Madrid never quite find the gear that separates them from a side that simply refuses to be outrun at home.

Vinícius Júnior comes off on 70, replaced by Endrick, and the change doesn't shift the game the way Ancelotti needs it to. Madrid probe, Athletic hold, and the clock bleeds out in the way it always seems to when you need a winner.

92nd minute

Then Bellingham. Jude Bellingham, in the 92nd minute, finds the ball and finds the bar. Not the net — the bar. It rings out around San Mamés and that is more or less that. One point. Two dropped.

What Ancelotti said

Afterwards, a reporter asks Carlo Ancelotti about Barcelona's lead in the title race. Ancelotti looks at the floor for four full seconds. Then: "we play our games." That's it. That's the press conference.

Comments

Loading comments…

Share this story

Real Madrid come to San Mamés, leave with one point, and spend the drive home watching Jude Bellingham's shot bounce off the crossbar on a loop. Barcelona's lead just got a little more comfortable.

Sources1 source

Marca

Flagside's editors read every piece we publish. We work from the football press, write our own copy rather than reprinting anyone's, and check each article for accuracy and sourcing. Every outlet that fed into this piece is named under Sources.

MORNING BRIEF

The day's football, in your inbox at 7 AM. Nothing else.

Pick of the night's matches, what the transfer window's doing, and the one column you should read today. No ads. No tips. No operators.

One-click unsubscribe. We do not share emails.