Vinicius and Rodrygo: Real Madrid’s deadly duo
Against Betis, it was the fifth time both Vinicius and Rodrygo had scored in the same game. They have already scored four goals this season.
It’s not easy to dance the samba, but Real Madrid are getting better and better at it. Dancing to the sound of their young diamonds, Vinicius and Rodrygo, the architects behind the club’s fifth victory this season. They are two different players in both style and status, but when they come together, they exude an extraordinary smell of gunpowder. Saturday’s game was the fifth time that the two have ended up on the same scoresheet. Every time that has happened, Madrid have won.
The first time was in the 2019-20 season. Madrid travelled to Brugge to play their corresponding Champions League group stage match, and they won 1-3, but it could have been more. Of the three goals, the Brazilians scored one each. They subsequently starred in a photo that made the front page of the national and international press. The photo was just the beginning for Madrid’s deadly duo.
That season, against Osasuna, they repeated the feat. It was on the sixth matchday of La Liga and at the Bernabéu, in front of their own fans. It was a cracking performance. In 2020-21, Rodrygo’s injury acted as a parenthesis, but it gave him time to continue dreaming about the Champions League. On the third matchday, after stumbling in the previous two, a pass from Vinicius and a Rodrygo finish put Inter Milan to the sword at the Di Stéfano. That night the young forwards began their love affair with Europe’s elite competition.
But undoubtedly the explosion of the pair came last season. They were both part of the group-stage thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk. Vinicius scored two goals and Rodrygo one. Against Levante, on the day of the Granotas’ relegation, Rodrygo got one and there was a hat-trick from Vini. Both starred, with Courtois and Benzema’s permission, in the most emblematic photos of last season’s Champions League success.
And then came the current season, 2022-23, where they have already laid the first bricks. The victory over Betis carried the flag for their country, with Vinicius scoring the opening goal and Rodrygo scoring the last goal, with a first-time finish from Valverde’s low cross. “It’s tough competition with him, because he’s top,” Rodrygo said of Valverde. And although at the moment he’s not in the starting line-up, when he comes on, he contributes. And if he joins up with Vinicius, they do more damage. They have become a deadly duo. “He is a special forward, he can play in all positions. He’s quick, intelligent and effective one-on-one. His apprenticeship is over. He is a Real Madrid player for all intents and purposes,” Ancelotti said of Rodrygo.