Vinicius has been melting all the predictions about the paths his evolution could take. From the giddy winger he went to the assistant who elevated Benzema to the Ballon d’Or and, now without the Frenchman, and without Bellingham, he has become a clinical scorer. With the two goals he took from Pamplona, the Brazilian has six in the last four games, matches in which, in addition, he has escaped the embers of Mestalla and his own outbursts with which he has accumulated warnings. But he survived the predictions and survives the turmoil, wherever it comes from, and in El Sadar he once again propelled Madrid to a victory that could have been much greater if Sergio Herrera were not in the rival goal. On the shoulders of Vinicius, Ancelotti’s team goes into the national team break still setting the pace in the League, perhaps with even more advantage over Barça, which visits Atlético this Sunday at the Metropolitano (9:00 p.m., Dazn).
2
Herrera, Unai García, Jorge Herrando (Juan Cruz, min. 79), Catena (Iker Muñoz, min. 69), Jesús Areso, Lucas Torró, Mojica, Jon Moncayola, Moi Gómez (Raul García de Haro, min. 69), Ante Budimir (Pablo Ibáñez, min. 69) and Arnáiz (Rubén García, min. 69)
4
Andriy Lunin, Ferland Mendy (Fran Garcia, min. 84), Aurelien Tchouameni, Dani Carvajal, Rüdiger, Federico Valverde, Camavinga (Nacho, min. 72), Kroos (Lucas Vázquez, min. 77), Brahim Diaz (Modric, min. . 72), Vinicius Junior (Arda Guler, min. 84) and Rodrygo
Goals 0-1 min. 3: Vinicius Junior. 1-1 min. 6: Before Budimir. 1-2 min. 17: Dani Carvajal. 1-3 min. 61: Brahim Diaz. 1-4 min. 64: Vinicius Junior. 2-4 min. 91: Iker Muñoz.
Referee Juan Martínez Munuera
Yellow cards Jorge Herrando (min. 31), Vinicius Junior (min. 43), Camavinga (min. 52), Lucas Torró (min. 54) and Unai García (min. 63)
The Brazilian dismantled a game that had been painted on the boards as a solid and balanced construction, with Osasuna supported by a defense of five and Madrid with an afternoon of patience ahead of them to decipher it. But the plans evaporated in a moment of confusion on Catena’s part. He lost sight of the ball when he had it at his feet, and when he came to, Vinicius had stolen it from him and was running towards Herrera. The Brazilian opened to the right, the goalkeeper beat himself a little and scored by aiming low at the other side. A blink. One of those goals from when Benzema looted goalkeepers.
Osasuna did not suffer that blow, so early that it had not even finished unfolding. So he picked up where he had left off; In fact, almost at the beginning. Catena’s calm was the beginning of a plan: they did not want to rush with the ball, but rather to gain some time when they recovered it, to advance with Moi Gómez and Torró, always with Budimir ahead as a reference, support point and space finder. between which is emerging as the central couple until Militão returns. Nacho stayed on the bench and Tchouameni started again in his place with Rüdiger. With the tie against Manchester City already on the horizon, this aims to be the trusted duo for raw duels with a lot of aerial threat, like in Pamplona, like Haaland.
But often in football plans are useless. Sometimes there is no time to activate them, sometimes a small crack is enough to dissolve them. Osasuna responded precisely through the air, in a play that had not caused any damage so far. He took a corner from the right, Carvajal deflected it at the near post, but the rebound fell to Herrando at the second, who returned it to the other side, where Budimir found the net.
Vinicius was close to extending the madness when Rüdiger filtered a pass behind the defense and he was once again left alone in front of Herrera. He tried to disarm him with a bicycle, but this time the goalkeeper did not defeat him. Back to the beginning.
Once balance was restored, the imagined match appeared on the boards. Osasuna occupied their rear wide and Madrid felt the wall in search of the point at which to insert the wedge. They went from one band to the other with a dance of liquid positions in which Brahim, Rodrygo, Vinicius, Camavinga, Valverde, Mendy and Carvajal were mixed. However, the vibrations of the agitation failed to destabilize the foundations. Overcoming that resistance required a more unorthodox touch. And that’s what Brahim is always ready for.
The man from Malaga, in his most involved week, between his call-up to play for Morocco and the swampy story of how he had despaired of playing for Spain, found refuge in the ball. Brahim is a pure enthusiast who has added to his natural fantasy a very notable defensive delivery. But before the red wall what appeared was magic. Standing before the wall, as they all were, he imagined a delicate touch to get over it. Valverde caught up with him inside the area and pushed it back with a half overhead kick that Carvajal finished off on goal with the outside.
Nor did that deflate Osasuna, which continued to have stretches of control in which it managed to organize assaults on the Lunin area. Areso first and Arnáiz later forced him to work hard to maintain the advantage. The Arrasate team always found moments in which to show their sting.
Although those episodes ended up being the most threatening. Going against one of them, Valverde looked back and Brahim ended up finding himself alone in the race towards Herrera. Another one-on-one for the goalkeeper, in which this time the man from Malaga, after the wonder of the second goal, scored the third.
Osasuna did not resign itself to holding on, and in its efforts Madrid found a reward. The next was Vinicius again, who met for the third time with Herrera on the left. While the angle was closing and it seemed that he was going out of bounds, the Brazilian shot subtly out of reach of the goalkeeper. Herrando, desperate, unsuccessfully chased a ball that entered in slow motion.
It was not the last wonder. Seven minutes on the field were enough for Güler to hit the crossbar from the center of the field. Vinicius has become a nuclear weapon, but in the young Turk there is more arsenal for the slopes that Ancelotti faces.