After taking a week off, the group stage of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League resumed Tuesday with eight games to kick off Matchday 2.
With seven goals in his first eight games for Real Madrid heading into Tuesday's hotly anticipated, marquee encounter away to Serie A champs Napoli, Jude Bellingham was already off to a record-breaking start with his new club.
The 20-year-old Englishman continued his hot streak in Italy, scoring in his eighth goal in his most impressive fashion yet — a slaloming run past several defenders before a cut-back and finish past keeper Alex Meret with his right foot.
Bellingham's latest strike put the 14-time European champs up 2-1; Napoli's Leo Skiri Østigård gave the hosts an early lead before Vinicius Junior canceled it out. A third would've sealed the win for Real. Instead, the Neapolitans were awarded a Charmin-soft penalty following a VAR check. Piotr Zieliński converted it, denying Bellingham what would've been a worthy game winner.
But a late Meret own goal — following a blistering shot by Federico Valverde that ricocheted off the crossbar, hit the keeper and went in — meant Real was still able to take all three points back to the Spanish capital from a match that more than lived up to the billing.
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