Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti lauded Vinicius Junior as the “most decisive player in world football” after inspiring Tuesday’s 5-2 Champions League win over Liverpool.
Madrid found themselves trailing 2-0 early on thanks to goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, the latter coming after a calamitous Thibaut Courtois error.
But Vinicius scored twice before half-time to level the score – his first a wonderful finish into the bottom-right corner, the second a fortuitous goal that involved him blocking Alisson’s clearance into the net.
Vinicius went on to to win the free kick, converted by Eder Militao from a superp drop in by Luka Modric to give the visitors from Santiago the lead, before setting up Karim for the 4th goal.
Only 7 players from across Europe’s top 5 leagues has more goal contribution since this campaign than Vinicius who has 27 already, but Carlo has mentioned that he can’t trade Vini for any.
At 22 years and 224 days, Vinícius Júnior is the youngest visiting player to score twice against Liverpool at Anfield in major European competition since Johan Cruyff in December 1966 for Ajax in the European Cup (19y 233d). Historic.
The two teams had battled for the trophy last year in Paris at the finals, and a lone goal from the Brazilian separated the two sides as Real Madrid triumphed on 1:0 win.