Bellingham in the goals as Mourinho’s men cruise to win at Racing

Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Yan Diomande were on target as Real Madrid cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory at Racing Santander in La Liga.

The newly promoted Racing were unbeaten in their first five home league matches of the season, however Madrid abruptly put an end to that record with a dominant performance at Estadio El Sardinero.

Ballon d’Or runner-up Mbappe broke the deadlock just 11 minutes in when he stepped up to confidently dispatch a penalty, which he won when fouled by Alvaro Mantilla.

Jose Mourinho’s side then doubled their lead in the 21st minute as Bellingham finished off a devastatingly clinical counter-attack, rounding goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala and passing into an empty net.

In doing so, Bellingham reached the 50-goal milestone in Madrid colours and surpassed the legendary Zinedine Zidane’s tally, with an impressive 76 matches to spare.

Diomande then extended Los Blancos’ advantage with a 36th-minute stunner. The Ivorian struck first time on the half-volley to meet a poor Racing clearance, finding the top left with a rocket.

Mourinho would have wanted more of the same in the second half, however Racing showed huge improvement and top scorer Yassir Zabiri missed two decent chances to reduce the deficit.

The hosts thought they had a route back into the game as they were awarded a penalty for an Aurelien Tchouameni handball, but it was overturned after a lengthy VAR check.

Madrid were then in the ascendancy once more and it was nearly four as Mbappe struck the right woodwork and Bellingham was denied a brace for a tight offside.

Real held on to clinch their ninth league win of the season, remaining third in La Liga and shifting to within three points of leaders Barcelona.

Los Blancos are next in action on Wednesday night, as they travel away to AEK Athens in the UEFA Champions League.