Jude Bellingham was every football fan as the Real Madrid star reacted in awe to Chris Wood’s hat-trick.
The Nottingham Forest striker was in blistering form as he netted three times in the Reds’ 7-0 mauling of Brighton at the City Ground on Saturday.
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Thanks to his goalscoring exploits, Wood became the first Forest player to score a hat-trick at home since club legend Nigel Clough in December 1987.
Wood bagged his first of the afternoon in the 32nd minute before he struck twice in the space of five minutes during the second half to take his season tally to 17 league goals.
The New Zealand international rightly earned plenty of plaudits for his display, including from Forest icon Stuart Pearce.
“This football club has had some legendary forwards,” Pearce told talkSPORT.
“But that performance this afternoon was wonderful.”
Now Bellingham has added his voice to the chorus of praise for Wood.
A Forest fan on X captured Real Madrid‘s star-studded squad walking through the team hotel, with Bellingham one of the last out alongside Thibaut Courtois.
Sensing the opportunity, the fan asked: “Jude, what about Chris Wood’s hat-trick today? Talk to me.”
Bellingham flashed a smile before he turned back to the camera and replied: “Top.”
Perhaps Bellingham and his Madrid teammates could’ve done with someone of Wood’s ruthlessness in front of goal as they slumped to a shock 1-0 loss to Espanyol.
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Carlos Romero’s strike in the 85th minute proved to be the difference as Los Blancos simply could not find a way past Espanyol goaleekper Joan Garcia – despite firing off 21 shots in total.
Despite the loss to Espanyol, Madrid remain first in LaLiga on 49 points – one point ahead of cross-town rivals Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona sit third on the table on 42 points, but have a game in hand, meaning they could close the gap to four points.
In further bad news for Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti, he lost star centre-back Antonio Rudiger to injury in the 15th minute.
The German, who already had his hamstrings wrapped going into the game, went down clutching his thigh.
He was replaced by 21-year-old defender Raul Asencio.
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Rudiger’s early exit comes just ten days out from the first leg of their Champions League play-off match against Manchester City.
Both sides failed to finish in the top eight of the league phase, meaning they were forced to play two extra games to book a spot in the round of 16.
It won’t get much easier for the victor, as they will face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the next stage.
