Size matters! Big Real Madrid celebrate Bellingham as he breaks tiny Berliners' hearts

Union Berlin, the club making its first-ever appearance in the Champions League, showed immense determination and resilience to keep the great Real Madrid at bay at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. They rode their luck, did their best, but sometimes the sheer magnitute of Real Madrid makes some sort of rupture in the fabric in spacetime to drag the ball into opposition's net. That's one explanation. The other is: Jude Bellingham is just too good.

It was a no-brainer, a no-contest. Los Blancos were supposed to use the home advantage, quality, reputation, their sheer size to intimidate and get the better off the working man's team from East Berlin. But football isn't that straightforward. Bellingham struck in added time to give the boys in white shirts the points they expected, but didn't believe they would have to sweat so much to earn them.

Despite Bellingham, Luka Modric, Joselu and Federico Falverde doing their best to find an opening in the visitoors' defence, there seemed to be no way through. The Iron Union rode their luck for long periods of this UEFA Champions League encounter, but their bravery ran out just seconds before the final whistle.

Bellingham had an easy task to hook the ball into the net after a penalty-box pinball-esque sequence resulted in the ball falling nicely for the Englishman to strike. We told you, it's a rupture in spacetime or something. Don't quote us, though. As the home crowd went crazy celebrating the winner, Los Blancos' legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti just raised his trademark eyebrow a bit and calmly turned away from the pitch. He's seen it all before so many times. It's Real Madrid. It's what they do.

Size matters more often than it doesn't in football. The big will beat the small, no matter how brave the small are. Union Berlin have learned the most important lession in football. Now they can use the lesson.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1

Tuesday

Milan - Newcastle 0-0

Young Boys - RB Leipzig 1-3 (1-1)

/Elia 33 - Simakan 3, Xaver 73, Sesko 92/

Feyenoord - Celtic 2-0 (1-0)

/Stengs 45, Jahanbakhsh 76/

Lazio - Atl.Madrid 1-1 (0-1)

/Provedel 90+5 -Barrios 29/

PSG - Dortmund 2-0 (0-0)

/Mbappe 49 pen, Hakimi 58/

Man.City - Crvena Zvezda 3-1 (0-1)

/Alvarez 46, 60, Rodri 73 - Bukari 45/

Barcelona - Antwerp 5-0 (3-0)

/Felix 11, 66, Lewandowski 19, Battaile 26 og, Gavi 54/

Shakhtar - Porto 1-3 (1-3)

/Kelsy 13 - Galeno 8, 15, Taremi 29/

Wednesday

Galatasaray - Copenhagen 2-2 (0-1)

/Boey 86, Tete 88 - Elyounoussi 35, Goncalves 58/

Real Madrid - Union Berlin 1-0 (0-0)

/Bellingham 90+4/

22.00: (1.58) Bayern (4.30) Man.Utd. (6.25)

22.00: (1.40) Arsenal (5.30) PSV (8.00)

22.00: (1.95) Sevilla (3.60) Lens (4.20)

22.00: (4.50) Braga (3.60) Napoli (1.90)

22.00: (1.45) Benfica (4.80) Salzburg (8.00)

22.00: (3.20) Sociedad (3.40) Inter (2.40)

***odds are subject to change