Dortmund boss Rose hails ´extraordinary´ Bellingham

Borussia Dortmund head coach Marco Rose heaped praise on “extraordinary” teenage sensation Jude Bellingham following the team’s 2-1 Champions League victory at Besiktas.

Bellingham opened the scoring against Turkish champions Besiktas in the 20th minute on Wednesday, before setting up Erling Haaland just prior to half-time as Dortmund kicked off their Group C campaign with three points.

England international Bellingham (18 years, 78 days) became the youngest ever player to score in consecutive Champions League games, surpassing Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe (18 years, 85 days in March 2017).

The 18-year-old Bellingham also became the youngest Englishman to score away from home in the Champions League.

18y 78d – Jude Bellingham is now the youngest Englishman to score away from home in the UEFA Champions League. Fearless. pic.twitter.com/BFdmvSAVLs

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 15, 2021

“Jude is just a great guy. In every single way,” Rose said during his post-match news conference.

“His mentality, the willingness to work for the team, the intensity with which he plays football, the will to win and of course the solutions he finds on the football pitch.

“The way he assists the second goal and scores the first himself is extraordinary. That’s why we’re glad to have such a boy with us.”

Dortmund have maintained their 100 percent winning record against Turkish opposition in the Champions League, winning all five matches by an aggregate scoreline of 15-3 – their best 100 per cent record against teams from a specific nation in the competition.

18 – Jude Bellingham (18y 78d) has become the youngest player ever to score in consecutive Champions League games, surpassing Kylian Mbappé (18y 85d in March 2017). Prodigy. #BJKBVB pic.twitter.com/gqsbqtNCmT

— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) September 15, 2021

Since making his Champions League debut in September 2019, no player has scored more non-penalty goals in the competition than Haaland (18 – level with Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski).

Following his goal midweek, Haaland has now scored against nine of the 10 opponents he has faced in the Champions League, only failing to find the back of the net against Manchester City.

“It was a very difficult game for us,” Rose added. “The atmosphere was great here. Besiktas are a very good team. The first 20 minutes they played with more intensity than we did. This caused us problems. We changed the system and the goal helped us to control the game a bit better.

“After that we scored the second goal just before the break and then we played well in the second half. We couldn’t manage to score the third goal and Besiktas put a lot of pressure on us in the end. A great performance. A great team. So that’s why we are very happy that we won here.”