Vinicius Junior played a role in four of Real Madrid’s five goals against Liverpool on Tuesday, leading to high praise from Carlo Ancelotti.
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti lauded Vinicius Junior as the “most decisive player in world football” after inspiring Tuesday’s 5-2 UEFA Champions League win over Liverpool.
Madrid trailed 2-0 early on thanks to goals from Darwin Nunes and Mohamed Salah.
But Vinicius equalized with two goals before the second half. The first was a fine finish into the bottom right corner and the second was a fortuitous goal that prevented Alisson from finding the back of the net.
He then scored a free-kick to score Madrid’s third goal just after half-time and provided an assist for Karim Benzema to make it 5–2.
Seven players from Europe’s top five leagues have scored more than 27 goals for Vinicius in all competitions this season, but Ancelotti looks unlikely to swap any of them for the Brazilian.
“Today, in my personal opinion, he is the most decisive football player in the world,” Ancelotti told reporters after Johan Cruyff (19 years and 233 days) in December 1966.
He does not stop. He dribbles, assists, scores. Currently, he is the most determined player. I hope he can continue like this.”
This match was very different from the last meeting between the two teams in last season’s Champions League final where Liverpool met before losing 1-0.
Ancelotti says Liverpool have changed a lot since the game in Paris, even regressed, but he is not sure and the draw is not over yet ahead of the return leg on March 15. I tried to impress the players. .
Ancelotti added: “I just know that we took the points in the last 90 minutes. In Madrid we have to manage the 90 minutes well.”
“Liverpool is a very competitive team and caused us a lot of problems. Unfortunately, the lottery is not over.
“I think they’re still a great team. They play hard and have a lot of speed. It’s hard to see a team like that in Europe.”
They haven’t changed, but they suggested a different game plan than the final. Then we played in a lower block, but this time the program was very different.”
