LALIGA SANTANDER
Vinicius breaks a record: 10 fouls received in LaLiga game against Mallorca
The Brazilian winger was, once again, the central topic in the debate around Real Madrid as they lost away to Mallorca.
He’s up against (almost) everyone. Vinicius was the central power source that caused problems for Mallorca manager Javier Aguirre’s system, who tried to put out the fires he left on the field... in any way possible. The Brazilian was fouled one, two, three, all the way up to ten times. Nobody this season has suffered more fouls, the last Madridista to do so was Isco against Betis in 2013 on his debut. Even Vini hadn’t got close to that number, as his highest was 7.
Now the ex-Madrid midfielder shares his record with the Brazilian: 12 fouls on Gustavo Lopez for Celta in 2007 was the highest ever recorded by Opta since 2005. Stopping Vinicius was Plan A, B and C for Mallorca; they kept him, and Madrid, in a cage. And, before he knew it, the game was gone.
More detail:
How things went against Mallorca
The battle didn’t take long to begin. After just four minutes, Dani Rodríguez started on Vini. But it was Maffeo and Raíllo who would have the most trouble with him: they wrote the script for the rest. The full-back and centre-back threw petrol on a rivalry that appears to be growing deeper. Last season we saw sparks, with a tackle from Maffeo on Vinicius that ended up with a yellow card... for Vinicius for shouting.
In the first half of the league this season, the pot was stirred and things were balanced somewhere between dances and controversy. “Vinicius can dance all he wants, as long as he doesn’t insult, undervalue and disrespect his fellow players”, said Raíllo after the game; before he had said that he wouldn’t allow his children to have Vinicius as a role model.
The full-back was booked in the first half for a soft foul. At half time, Vini showed the Madrid badge to the crowd, turning Ancelotti into his temporary bodyguard, to avoid negative consequences. Raíllo picked up where he left off in the second half, shoving the Mallorca badge into the winger’s face. Vinicius himself didn’t shy away from the battle, committing 5 fouls himself.
Ancelotti asks for protection
Ancelotti, at the end of his tether, wants this all to end. “Today, the referee forgot about persistent fouling. It’s a yellow card when a player keeps committing foul after foul. We ended the first half with two cards and Mallorca none”.
He continued by saying “everything that happens is not Vinicius’ fault. All he wants to do is play football but opponents provoke him, push him, foul him…We have to change that focus. We have to look at what happened to him in today’s game”.
With 79, Vinicius is the most-fouled player in the top 5 leagues in Europe and the first to get to 10 in one game. The second player in the list is Neymar, at 59. Vinincius didn’t stop: he kept going and won the penalty for Asensio, completing 7 dribbles of 17. But he wasn’t the man in the spotlight for his on-pitch performance, unfortunately. Mallorca kicked Vincius out of the game.
LaLiga Santander 2022/2023
| Classification | PTS | WM | TM | LM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Barcelona | 50 | 16 | 2 | 1 |
| 2Real Madrid | 45 | 14 | 3 | 3 |
| 3Real Sociedad | 39 | 12 | 3 | 5 |
| Upcoming matches | |
|---|---|
| Real Madrid - Elche | W-15/02 15:00 |
| Osasuna - Real Madrid | S-18/02 15:00 |
| Real Madrid - Atlético de Madrid | S-26/02 12:00 |
*Data updated to date Feb 5th, 2023