Vinicius Jr threatened by Real Madrid teammate

After Real Madrid’s comfortable Champions League victory over Brest, Rodrygo Goes headed over to the section where 700 fans of the LaLiga giants were housed at Stade de Roudourou in Guingamp after making the trip to northern France. Alongside his teammates, the Brazilian thanked the supporters before heading into the stadium’s modest locker room.

Brazilian’s impressive Champions League statistics

For the second consecutive Champions League match, the Brazilian had just scored a brace, bringing his total in the competition to 24 goals in 58 appearances (37 starts), an average of 0.625 goals per game.

The 24-year-old has also provided 11 assists, resulting in 36 goal contributions in those 58 matches. Despite back-to-back braces, Rodrygo wasn’t awarded UEFA’s MVP award in either of the last two UCL games against Salzburg or Brest.

In just one week, the attacker scored half of Real Madrid’s goals against Salzburg and Brest (four of eight), with the last three coming while playing on the left wing. Looking back, the last Real Madrid player to score two or more goals in consecutive Champions League matches was Karim Benzema in 2022, with hat-tricks against Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.

Rodrygo steps up in Vinicius' absence

Rodrygo has taken full advantage of Vinicius’ absences due to suspensions in both La Liga and the Champions League. The younger of the two Brazilians has kept his head down, gritted his teeth, and stepped up to lead his team.

Alongside teammates like Bellingham and Mbappé, Real Madrid’s number 11 has been delivering stellar performances recently. In his last 11 matches across all competitions, he has contributed to 14 goals (10 goals and 4 assists), matching his output from the previous 46 matches (also 10 goals and 4 assists).

Against Brest, Rodrygo won 11 of 12 individual duels, had a 92% pass accuracy (46 out of 50), completed all six dribbles he attempted (his best dribbling performance for Real Madrid in any game ever), provided two key passes, and even won four out of five tackles.

The forward ended the game with two goals but very nearly had a hat-trick, after a Maradona-esque run, which would have been his second in the Champions League after scoring three times on his debut at the Bernabéu against Galatasaray in 2019.

Vinicius Jr’s place at Real Madrid under threat

His superb form and hunger for goals has created a selection dilemma for Carlo Ancelotti: will he start Vinicius on the left, or have Rodrygo’s recent performances in that position done enough for him to stay there? In theory, it’s a nice problem for the Italian to have.

Original article written by Agustín Martín, translated with the assistance of AI and edited by Roddy Cons.

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