Roy Keane believes Jude Bellingham can become 'one of the greatest players of all time' after his all-action performance in England's 7-0 win over Croatia. Bellingham scored one and provided three assists as the Three Lions inflicted a record defeat on Croatia in Rijeka.
Bellingham stars in record victory
The Real Madrid star set Harry Kane through to open the scoring after just eight minutes before getting in on the act 13 minutes later when he poked home Anthony Gordon's cross. Gordon then scored from Jarell Quansah's superb cross before Bellingham set up Bukayo Saka for England's fourth in a rampant first-half display away from home.
Kane found his second after the break before laying off to Saka to score his second of the match in the 68th minute. Bellingham provided his third assist in the closing stages, finding Morgan Rogers with a superb through ball, the Chelsea midfielder rounding Dominick Livakovic to complete an emphatic victory for Thomas Tuchel's side.
Keane's high praise
Bellingham has made an equally impressive start to the season at club level, with five goal involvements in seven league games for Real, and Keane believes the sky is the limit for the talismanic 23-year-old.
'The way he is progressing as a player, I still think there's so much more to come from him, but I think at this moment in time, he's an amazing footballer,' Keane told ITV post-match. 'The package, his running power, his delivery, his goal threat. I just think there's more to come from him in terms of his leadership skills, his technical ability is fantastic.
'I think Bellingham, he can go on to be one of the greatest players of all time as long as he gets no injuries, he keeps the head.'
Tuchel hails complete performance
Keane continued: 'And again, his attitude with England recently. I've been praising him a lot for fantastic in possession, but what he's doing out of possession, that lifts all these other players.
'Because if you have a player that good on your team, who's amazing in possession, and he's playing for Real Madrid, and he's doing brilliant things, but his work-rate off the ball, that will just inspire all the other players. He's a huge leader from them.'
Speaking after the game, an impressed Tuchel told ITV: 'Maybe three minutes after the 3-0 where we had the big mistake and some easy ball losses, but that was a 90-minute performance at the highest level from everyone.
'From the first until the last minute, everyone who started and everyone came from the bench, it was the highest level and congratulations to the team.
'On an away pitch very, very impressive. We created so many chances. The first 40 minutes we were so fluid from the start. I remember looking at the clock, I thought, 'Wow, this is a good three minutes', then looked again and it was a good seven minutes.
'It just never stopped. We kept the pace up and played through the gaps. We were very clinical. Stayed hungry in our counter-pressing and defending, so we did the basics right. I love the attitude. We always played humble and always got the basics right and that's why it was a complete performance.'
