The exuberance of Vinicius’s game is beginning to reach that desperate point that some geniuses reach, which consists in the fact that, despite the fact that everyone knows what he is going to do, it is impossible to prevent him from doing it. And he does. In La Cartuja he did not even need to wait for the game to reach that point of optimal maturity for his legs, when he continues to insist on the same revolutions and the rest faint. The Brazilian destroyed all the plans, all the precautions, before two minutes had elapsed. At first. He ran into Moncayola, his partner of the night, and mocked him. Rubén Peña then went, and also got lost. While he was looking for it, Vini had already reached the end line, from where he put the ball back, which Rodrygo converted into the first goal.
2
Courtois, Eder Militao, Alaba, Camavinga, Dani Carvajal, Aurelien Tchouameni (Rüdiger, min. 69), Federico Valverde, Kroos (Modric, min. 81), Benzema, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo (Marco Asensio, min. 89)
1
Herrera, Jon Moncayola, Aridane, Juan Cruz, David García, Rubén Peña (Rubén García, min. 75), Abde (Kike Barja, min. 75), Aimar Oroz, Moi Gómez (Kike García, min. 86), Lucas Torró (Pablo Ibáñez, min. 86) and Ante Budimir (Chimy Ávila, min. 69)
goals 1-0 min. 2: Rodrigo. 1-1 min. 57: Lucas Torro. 2-1 min. 70: Rodrigo.
Referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez
Yellow cards Jon Moncayola (min. 21), David García (min. 37), Eder Militao (min. 40), Vinicius Junior (min. 44), Camavinga (min. 74), Kike Barja (min. 83), Federico Valverde ( min. 89), Courtois (min. 93) and Pablo Ibáñez (min. 94)
There will be few things that the rivals study more than how to set up traps for Vinicius, and yet, against Osasuna, the Brazilian lived as if nothing had happened. The first half hour was an unbearable pounding for Moncayola. He was gone once, he was gone the next, and so was the other. The Navarrese tried to get him out of the lane with his body, he tried to guess the trajectory of the ball, but the Brazilian had a night of maximum trilera inspiration. The ball was gone. Neither did the footballer. In those 30 minutes Moncayola was already carrying a yellow card and Vinicius was flying.
The effects of the confusion that he had caused were such that they allowed him to expand records, and he was the one who threw Camavinga down that lane. The maneuver resulted in a shot from the midfielder installed again on the left side, and a drop to Benzema, who shot high.
Vinicius is increasingly indecipherable with the ball, but his effervescence when shaken has become more predictable. His dribbling has become increasingly dark terrain for defenders, who instead find the springs of his tantrums clearly visible. Just as predictable as the disorder he generates is the explosion that is yet to come. In the final it happened very close to halftime. He had escaped again in the area and fell in front of David García, who had touched his back. He exploded, faced the defense, complained to the referee. The flame had caught.
A couple of minutes later Rodrygo was brought down on a counterattack and Vinicius was still burning. The yellow card fell on him, as predictable these days as the opposing right-back will have a hard time with him. The president of Madrid, Florentino Pérez, defended his player: “Vini, in his position, is the best in the world. It is difficult to stop him and in general, those who mark him make many fouls. And he takes the card. I don’t understand. You have to defend the players who offer a show, ”he said afterwards.
The Osasuna stands saw the fire and threw their firewood: “Silly, silly!” The Brazilian faced up, touched the Madrid shield, and Lucas Vázquez took advantage of a pause to throw his arm over him from outside the field and try to calm him down.
The pause came immediately, which in these boiling conditions meant only introducing the brawl into a corridor. On the way to the locker room, Vinicius said something to Osasuna’s substitutes and Chimy, who has escaped real shootings, started looking for him. “Since they already know me as I am, and I can’t stand it, and more than anything when they disrespect my team… The words he said made me very angry,” the Argentine explained later, avoiding going into more detail. “With the kind of player that he is, that he is a very good player, he protects him, and he seems very good to me. But I think that we are also people, and that is the important thing, to be a good human being. Because you can be a good player, but if you have a black heart, it’s impossible to be like that. The coach or his teammates will correct it ”.
In the tunnel to the locker room, Lucas intervened again, who with the help of Rüdiger, cut off the rojillos who turned towards the Brazilian.
Ancelotti intervened in the dressing room: “When we entered the dressing room, I calmed them down a bit. This team has to do only one thing, which is play soccer. Because we do this well. Anything else is losing control, losing concentration…”. Carvajal defended that line: “It is a task that he has to correct: avoid provocations and dedicate himself to playing, because when he does he is the best.”
And after all the mess, Vinicius what? Nothing: start over. Here is another of the astonishments of the attacker: neither the earthquakes nor the volcanic agitation seem to leave any scar. Suddenly, he erases everything, and it’s like nothing ever happened.
There is an outstanding example of something similar from May of last year, in another final, the Champions League against Liverpool in Saint Denis. The Brazilian passes very close to Jürgen Klopp on the wing, winks at him, gives him a high five, and a few seconds later scores the winning goal.
In La Cartuja, he returned from half-time through the same tunnel in which he brushed against the montonera, and when Madrid found themselves in the delicate moment that caused Torró’s equalizer, they did it again. He darted to the end line and pushed it back to Kroos, who popped the ball. The rejection fell to Rodrygo, who put the ball to float over Sergio Herrera. A Brazilian dances, another hits.
After that, Vini still immediately went back for Aridane, who was beaten by the bottom line. And also later. And another night he survived himself, and what everyone knew was going to happen.
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