The moment that sparked heated row between England team-mates Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice in Arsenal’s Champions League triumph over Real Madrid

England team-mates Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice were involved in a heated confrontation during Arsenal’s Champions League win over Real Madrid on Wednesday night.

Rice had been the star of the show in last week’s first leg, scoring two stunning free-kicks to hand Arsenal a 3-0 win and put them in complete control of the quarter-final tie heading into the return match at the Bernabeu.

He won his head-to-head battle against Bellingham at the Emirates, and got the better of the Real Madrid star again in Spain. But Bellingham refused to go down without a fight, and the pair were seen squaring up to each other in the first half as they jostled for the ball near the halfway line.

However, it was actually an incident inside the opening three minutes that appeared to upset Bellingham, as he was knocked to the floor by Rice on the edge of the box, who regained possession while the referee waved play on.

Bellingham appeared stunned at losing his first physical battle with Rice, and that set the tone for the rest of the match as he cut a frustrated figure for long periods.

The subsequent spat between the pair seemed to link back to that early challenge, and neither man took a backwards step as their team-mates had to quickly jump in to prevent the situation escalating.