On Sunday night, an absolutely crazy Real Madrid stat regarding the FIFA World Cup just got even crazier after a player's incredibly heroic efforts.
On Sunday evening (Monday morning CET), Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham scored two goals for England to drag them kicking and screaming into the World Cup quarter-finals as they defeated hosts Mexico 3-2 at the iconic Azteca Stadium.
He became the first player to score two goals at the Azteca in a World Cup game since the legendary Diego Maradona did so back in 1986. On top of scoring twice, he was also the first player to have three shots on target, complete eight dribbles and win 10 duels in any sort of World Cup knockout game since the legendary Argentine.
What was particularly crazy about the brace is that it came just 98 seconds apart. Without downplaying the achievement, Maradona's two goals were separated by 11 minutes. Still very quick, but these goals were not even 100 seconds apart.
This means that, incredibly, all three of the quickest braces in World Cup history were scored by Real Madrid players. The fastest ever was Toni Kroos for Germany against Brazil in that game at the 2014 edition, doing so in just 70 seconds.
The second quickest was Kylian Mbappe against Argentina in the 2022 final, with those goals coming in 95 seconds, three seconds quicker than Bellingham. Just incredible in every sense of the word.
Now, Mbappe was a PSG player at the time, and with Kroos, well it depends who you ask. He had not been a Los Blancos player before the tournament, but his next game and the rest of his career at club level was spent at the club. So, you could say that 1 1/2 of the three were scored by Real Madrid players.
Unfortunately for Mbappe, he was the only player who did not win the game. There is no doubt that Bellingham's goals were the most consequential, England would have been sent packing without them.
These two goals mean that the 23-year old has now reached double figures for The Three Lions, with 10 goals in 53 games. Of those 10 strikes, seven of them have come at major tournaments (either the World Cup or Euros), and three of those have been in the knockout stages. A very, very clutch player, for both club and country.
Just to finish off, as a PSA, some have wondered if Bellingham picked up a yellow card at the end of the game last night, which would subsequently rule him out of the quarter-final against Norway. That is not the case, it was instead registered to a substitute.
