Jude Bellingham and Dani Ceballos each apologised after Real Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals by Arsenal.
Trailing 3-0 from the first leg at Emirates Stadium, Madrid proved unable to produce a classic second-leg fightback.
Arsenal prevailed 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu to complete a 5-1 aggregate win that will increase speculation around Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti’s future. Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead before Gabriel Martinelli netted late on to kill any lingering Madrid hopes after Vinicius Junior had levelled.
Failure in the Champions League is rarely tolerated by the club that has won Europe’s most prestigious competition 15 times and, while the criticism will predominantly be aimed at Ancelotti, Bellingham and Ceballos took to social media to accept their share of the blame.
England star Bellingham posted on Instagram: “Simply didn’t live up to the expectations of this club in either of the games.
“Sorry Madridistas, we understand how much these nights and this competition means to you. There’s still opportunities to save this season but it’s only possible by staying together. Real Madrid will be back!”
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Ceballos added on X (formerly Twitter): “Sorry! But above all, THANK YOU, thank you for the support throughout the week until the final whistle of the match.
“We’ll give 100% to live up to your expectations for the rest of the season. Real Madrid always comes back.”
Madrid appear unlikely to successfully defend the LaLiga title. They trail Barcelona by four points with seven games remaining. Los Blancos host Champions League-chasing Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.
Their main hope of erasing that deficit will be the Clasico on May 11 at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium.
Before that, Madrid and Barca will face off in the Copa del Rey final in nine days’ time at Estadio La Cartuja in Seville.
