Bellingham: "We are excited about making a comeback"

Jude Bellingham spoke to the media in the press room at Real Madrid City before hosting Arsenal in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals (Wednesday, 9 pm CEST): "The fans are fundamental. They create an incredible atmosphere. The energy inside the stadium is contagious and the players give our best. We can feel when the people are there and this makes the game even bigger. It means a lot to us. We shouldn't ask the Real Madrid fans to do anything more than they have already done. They are the 12th player and they always give their all. Now it's up to us to make them feel proud."

"Comeback. I must have heard it a million times this week. I've seen lots of videos from fans, from the press... it motivates us a lot. It's a night tailor-made for Real Madrid. It may be something that people are familiar with. We can't add anything more special to this."

Preparation
“Emilio (Butragueño) talked about the 6-1 against Anderlecht. This is the source of inspiration I've been drawing from these days. I've seen the most recent ones as well. We want to be part of this and add a page to the history of this club. It's up to us and I think there is nothing we haven't done in the Champions League. Tomorrow is an opportunity to continue to shape the future. It's very important for us.”

Emotions on the pitch
“It's normal for emotions to run strong on the pitch. You communicate louder than normal. We have a very different relationship, we have to be honest with each other. There are a lot of interactions in a match and you give more importance to it than we do. You can't go into a game like this without being 100% on film. That's all there is for us, our only motivation is a comeback. We're excited and looking forward to it.”

Vibes
“Much better than what we saw in the first game. You have to understand what the game requires, there are many things. It's not just one aspect, we didn't perform at our best. When you lose you see the game many times and we know we can do much better. That's what we want to show tomorrow. One thing is losing and another is not learning. We have to do that for tomorrow.”

What does it mean for him?
“It's an incredible environment. It was one of the worst results we could've imagined. For some reason, things didn't go well and now everyone is expecting a comeback. It's a very attractive atmosphere. It means you're at the best club in the world and that's what it means to me. There's pressure and you have to give your best to get the best possible result. It's just what we have to do, to come back.”

How important is it to outrun the opposition?
“If you run more you have more possibilities and, if we think logically, naturally it influences the game. Ultimately it gives you more chances. Last year it was the same. We were not the ones who ran the most, but in the end we won the Champions League. We have to know what spaces to cover and what it means to run one way or the other. It's about finding the balance between where to run and how much or how little to run. This is a combination of both. We didn't do well at the Emirates and I'm sure we're going to run more tomorrow than we did last week. And hopefully we have a better plan when it comes to doing it.”

Fear in England
“There is a certain expectation at Real Madrid. When we go into games like this everyone expects us to come back. Tomorrow's game is going to be very difficult and it's probably not that common in England. It has happened, for example with Liverpool, a couple of years ago and they won. The club has done it a lot of times and that's why the size of this club and the grandeur of this club is so impressive. That's why expectations are so high.”

When do they start believing in a comeback?
“Honestly, after the match it's tough because you have that difficult moment. You think it's going to be tough, but as you talk and see the confidence you have, you get absorbed in all of it. We've had previous experiences of this, and it's contagious. It makes you feel much more comfortable with the situation you're in. It was almost immediate. At the time when we were on the coach, we weren't feeling the way we are now, but we already believed in ourselves.”

How possible is a comeback?
“What makes us confident is our quality, the club's history and the fans who will give their all. There have been magical nights at the Bernabéu. We probably played as badly as we could in that game and we still have a chance. We believe we can do much better. Sometimes you think there's no way, but we still have options. We have to increase our level of focus and confidence. We have confidence in our capabilities.”

“The free-kick issue was a bit surprising. I haven't seen this player (Declan Rice) score two goals in a long time. That was the only thing that surprised us. They're a very good team and we knew they had a great coach. They're very well organised. There were a lot of things that impressed us, but none of them took us by surprise.”

Is there anything left to show?
“We've had some tough games, but we've still managed to win. That's the best thing you can draw from these matches. Both at home and away we've faced the same situation. There are negative things in matches, we're not always going to do everything right. When things go wrong they are more relevant, but when you win it's not so talked about. We've had some very good moments this year and we're capable of doing things well regardless of the bad moments. We have to have confidence in the team and in our possibilities. It's not just about history, it's about working daily, regardless of the opposition.”

Games won by one goal
“We won some games when we didn't play well, but we found a way to win. Maybe winning by one goal was what we needed. Tomorrow, we need to score more goals. We have to be aware of this and we have to be at our best. We're not worried if we've scored more than one goal in the last few months. It's a totally different environment and I hope we can give it everything tomorrow and win.”