The Guardian - The Madrid forward lit up an otherwise underwhelming clásico against impotent hosts who seemed at odds with reality
Vinícius Júnior had a long walk home but not half as long as the people he passed on the way. The Brazilian was on the other side of the ground when he was taken off with four minutes left and Real Madrid 1-0 up in the clásico, slowly heading eastbound around the edge of the pitch. As he went along the front of the north stand, some Barcelona supporters came to shout at him. Others gave him the finger. More took pictures where once they took the piss. Mostly they were just glad to see the back of him. Which is pretty much all their players had seen too, Óscar Mingueza especially.
Mingueza had already played his last minutes an hour earlier, departing early defeated. Now Vinícius left too, eventually cracking into a smile and pointing at the scoreboard. His work was done and the game was too, it seemed. He hadn’t been on the bench long when it definitely was. Barcelona had the ball but couldn’t find a way through and never looked much like finding one either. Despite or perhaps because of sticking Luuk de Jong and Gerard Piqué up front, although Sergio Agüero and Memphis Depay were there too, there were more forwards than football and not one shot on target. “Madrid had had better opportunities than us,” Marc-André ter Stegen admitted after, and they were about to get the clearest of all. Continue reading...