Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham was seen slapping Pablo Maffeo during a Super Cup match against RCD Mallorca.
On Thursday, La Liga champions Real Madrid comfortably defeated RCB Mallorca 3-0 in their Super Cup semi-final at King Abdullah Sport City in Saudi Arabia.
Bellingham opened the scoring shortly after the hour mark. An own goal by Mallorca defender Martin Valjent and a third goal from Rodrygo secured the victory for the Spanish giants. ..Continue Reading
However, it wasn’t Bellingham’s goal that captured the Spanish media’s attention. Instead, it was an incident where the England international was seen slapping an opponent during the match.
Immediately after the match ended, players from both Real Madrid and Mallorca were involved in a large scuffle in the middle of the pitch, necessitating staff and security to step in and break it up.
Bellingham’s altercation with Mallorca’s Maffeo occurred earlier in the match when the defender seemed to deliberately provoke several Real Madrid players throughout the game.
Before the game, Maffeo claimed he could knock out Vinicius Jr in a boxing match within 10 seconds but was frequently outplayed by the Brazilian on the field.
Bellingham quickly reminded the 27-year-old of this by slapping him on the back of the head shortly after Vinicius had beaten him in a duel.
Speaking about Maffeo’s behaviour, Marca panelist Gonzalo Miró said: “Maffeo is a footballer who is extremely provocative and who seeks to be the centre of attention when he plays Madrid.”
But fellow panelist Emilio Contreras didn’t feel it fair to hand the blame to Maffeo, as he also called out Bellingham, saying: “I think it’s deplorable behaviour from professional footballers.
“I don’t accept the fact that they’re at who knows how many heartbeats. Bellingham should be criticized for the slap, it’s unnecessary. And Maffeo, it’s deplorable.”
While Whip Serrano suggested: “The conclusion I draw is that they (Madrid) had it in for Maffeo, they were waiting for him and they took advantage of the two final goals to get even, and since Maffeo wasn’t going to keep quiet and he turned around, a brawl was created.”
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