Trent Alexander-Arnold insists he has only been learning Spanish for ‘a couple of months’, despite producing a near-fluent speech at his Real Madrid unveiling last week.

Xabi Alonso has insisted he was happy with what he saw from Trent Alexander-Arnold in the right back’s first outing for Real Madrid on Wednesday. Alexander-Arnold, whose free transfer from Liverpool was brought forward for the Club World Cup for a fee of €10 million (£8.

The reality is that there was little rock and roll from him against an Al-Hilal side that Madrid were expected to dispatch. They were held to a draw by the Saudi Arabian side after Federico Valverde's 90th-minute penalty was saved by Bono.