Vinicius knew how good the goal was, and celebrated in kind, taking delight in rubbing his joy in the faces of those in the stands who had jeered him from minute one. The former Flamengo teenager is one of those athletes who feeds off the energy of the game. The fans roar, he runs harder; an opponent kicks him, Vinicius wants to beat him more. There is an infectious sort of relentlessness about him, a sheer drive that no doubt helps him to rise to the biggest of occasions. That is absolutely a good thing.
Unfortunately, deplorably, it was all rather ruined last week, when he was subject to alleged racist abuse from Gianluca Prestianni. The Benfica forward protests his innocence, but multiple eyewitness accounts, as well as a video itself, would seem to tell a different story. This saga will, no doubt, drag on. Prestianni, should he be found guilty, will hopefully face an appropriate punishment.
But lost in all of this - Jose Mourinho's silly comments, the game stopping, Kylian Mbappe's scathing account - is the fact that Vinicius was brilliant all night. In truth, he has been for the best part of two months now.
Asking Vinicius to simply 'let his game do the talking' devalues the magnitude of the situation, yet ignoring that he is a truly excellent footballer returning to his brilliant best would be a more egregious act of revisionism. Vinicius, in short, is playing his most effective football in a year, and as the games get bigger, his undeniable quality will only become more vital for Los Blancos.
