Vini Jr’s Atlético Madrid curse

Vinicius Jr comes into this Champions League derby—the second in just a few days—in a state of clear contention. Feelings about the Brazilian tend to be overwhelmingly positive: he is Madrid’s best dribbler by far and the attacker who makes the most attempts, even on an off day. Yet, as a forward, his primary mission is to make his mark on the scoreboard—a task he had recently struggled to accomplish.

Prior to the clash against Rayo, he had registered just one goal and one assist in his previous ten matches. However, he ended that drought against the Vallecas side with a well-taken goal, bringing his tally to 19 for the season—just in time to get the engine running ahead of the derby against Atlético, a team against which he has a personal score to settle.

Vinicius’s record against Atlético is, to put it mildly, disappointing: just one goal and one assist in 16 appearances. That solitary goal came during the 2022-23 quarter-final at the Bernabéu—a match that ended 3-1 after extra time, with Vinicius scoring Madrid’s third against a fatigued and overwhelmed Atlético defence.

Vinicius Jr has a poor record against Atlético Madrid

Since then, he has failed to find the net against Oblak or any other Atlético goalkeeper—an anomaly considering he has already netted 104 goals for Madrid (matching Ronaldo Nazario’s tally) and has excelled against other top clubs, such as Barcelona (seven goals in 19 games), Liverpool (five in five), Dortmund (four in two), and Manchester City (two in nine).

Despite this lack of goals, Vinicius has still played a pivotal role in Madrid’s victories. In his first derby at the Metropolitano, he won a controversial penalty—contested by Atlético as a foul outside the area—that the newly implemented VAR system in LaLiga did not overturn. In the 2021-22 season at the Bernabéu, he provided two assists—to Benzema and Asensio—that secured a 2-0 win for Madrid.

Interestingly, Vinicius’s official debut for Madrid also came in a derby. In September 2018, with the score at 0-0, Lopetegui—who had relegated the Brazilian to the sidelines at Castilla despite Madrid’s €45 million investment from Flamengo—brought him on for the final two minutes. It was far too little time to make an impact, and it wasn’t until Solari took charge that Vinicius truly began to flourish on the pitch.

That derby, however, was not his first encounter with Atlético. Just weeks earlier, while playing for the reserve team, he was infamously bitten on the head by Tachi, a defender who never established himself at Atlético. He has since endured hostile atmospheres at the Metropolitano, including widespread chants of “Vinicius, you are a monkey” outside the stadium—chants reported by LaLiga but dismissed by the Prosecutor’s Office as not constituting a crime, as they lasted “only a few seconds” and occurred “in the context of maximum rivalry.”

In a shocking incident, a doll wearing Vinicius’s shirt was seen hanging from a bridge alongside a banner that read “Madrid hates Real,” an act that led to the arrest of four members of the Ultras group, the Frente Atlético.

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Atlético Madrid are to host Real Madrid in the last-16 second leg on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Kick-off at the Estadio Riyadh Air Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain, is at 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT. Viewers in the United States can watch Atlético Madrid vs Real Madrid live in English on Paramount+, while Spanish-language coverage will be available on UniMás, TUDN and ViX. You can stream UniMás and TUDN on fubo, which offers new users a free trial.

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