Real Madrid have a very good evening on Wednesday as they dispatched of Manchester City to book their place in the last 16 of the Champions League. However, it was not a perfect match for Carlo Ancelotti’s side as a yellow card picked up by Jude Bellingham in the first half means that he is suspended for the first leg of the next round.
Bellingham’s absence for the first leg of Real Madrid’s last 16 tie, which will be against Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, is a big blow, given that he has been one of the most decisive players in Europe over the last 18 months. It means that Ancelotti must figure out a replacement, and he does have options.
Brahim Diaz is the favourite, while Arda Guler has an outside chance. Ancelotti could also opt to go a different route and play with an extra defensive-minded midfielder – and if he does this, Eduardo Camavinga would be a leading candidate to get the nod to play alongside Dani Ceballos and Aurelien Tchouameni.
However, Camavinga himself was also close to being ruled out of the first leg because of suspension. In the dying stages of the match against Man City, the French midfielder lunged in on Omar Marmoush, committing a foul in the process. While he was not punished by referee Istvan Kovacs, he did not escape the wrath of several of his Real Madrid teammates, including Vinicius Junior and Andriy Lunin.
A fan video, relayed by Marca, from the Santiago Bernabeu captured the moment that Camavinga was approached by Vinicius and Lunin after the full time whistle, and the pair were visibly unhappy with their teammate.
💥 La bronca de Vinicius a Camavinga tras el pitido final: al brasileño no le había gustado que el francés, que estaba apercibido, se la jugara con algunas entradas arriesgadas con el partido ya sentenciado
📹 @jdelriomuradas #UCL #ChampionsLeague https://t.co/8LmWZhpo8u pic.twitter.com/QjrD85iBim
— MARCA (@marca) February 20, 2025
It is perhaps clear that Camavinga can count himself lucky that he was not yellow-carded for the foul on Marmoush, and as a result, that he is available for the first leg of Real Madrid’s last 16 tie.
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