Real Madrid were handed a hammer blow when they lost 1-0 against Barcelona at Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi finals. It was a terrible result for Carlo Ancelotti’s side to say the least and now leaves them with a mountain to climb in the second leg at Camp Nou.
On the day, there were high expectations that Real Madrid would get a win. Their remarkable 5-2 win away at Anfield against Liverpool was still fresh in the memory while Barcelona entered the game on a two-match losing streak, suffered at the hands of Manchester United and Almeria.
One of the players who disappointed on the day was Vinicius Junior. The Brazilian winger struggled against Ronald Araujo once again. And things could have gotten worse for him.
Vinicius tangled with Frenkie de Jong in the first half of the game and appeared to almost wrestle him to the ground. He was shown a yellow card for that. But almost inexplicably, he protested the decision vocally and even pointed a finger at the referee. On another day, the yellow might have turned into a red, and it was a bit of a lucky escape for the Brazilian star.
Diego Simeone slams Real Madrid star for actions in El Clasico
As reported by GOAL, while talking in a pre-match press conference, Simeone suggested that Vinicius should have been shown a red:
"“You all saw it the same [as me]. Seeing the images, we are asking ourselves the same questions. It goes beyond anything else that I can tell you.“It’s difficult to add much more to what you have seen. It depends, as always, on the interpretation of the referees, on how they understand things in the best way possible so that everything is equal.”"
Fortunately, Vinicius was not shown a red card or it would have left Real Madrid down to ten men for most of the game. They already lost 1-0 and things could have gotten much worse if that happened.
One would hope that Vinicius will put in a much better performance in the second leg at Camp Nou. The good news is that he has a habit of proving doubters wrong.