Brazilian winger redeems himself with a crucial performance as Real Madrid overcome the Real Sociedad challenge | OneFootball

Another hard-fought fixture went in favor of Real Madrid, as the Merengues now head to the Copa Del Rey final after overcoming the resilience of Real Sociedad at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The starting lineup was an interesting one, with a not-so-solid defense and the absence of Kylian Mbappe up front. However, there was no lack of talent, with the South American trio returning to the side. One of them in particular was Vinicius Junior, who had a point to prove and an eagerness to return to form.

Since February, Vinicius has scored just 2 goals in all competitions and has been fairly average in most of those matches. For a player who had vowed to work 10x harder, these are not the returns expected.

Furthermore, the international break was also a mixed bag for the Brazilian because even though he scored the winning goal against Colombia, he was unable to do anything as Argentina thrashed Brazil 4-1.

With Mbappe out of the picture – for at least the first hour of the game – Vinicius had to play an important role and take the responsibility upon himself – and the Brazilian certainly did.

He assisted fellow country man, 18-year-old Endrick and as a result, Los Blancos headed into the second half with a lead on aggregate. Later in the game, Vinicius was again involved, recording his second assist of the match as Jude Bellingham put both sides on level terms on aggregate.

Other than the two assists, Sofascore statistics showed, that the 24-year-old also created 2 big chances and made 3 key passes in the match. He also had 3 shots on target however, Vinicius also missed a couple of crucial chances.

Moreover, by assisting twice in this match, the Brazilian now has the 3rd-most assists by a player in the CDR and most by a Real Madrid player, only behind Jordi Alba and Lionel Messi.

Even though he won just 10 out of 18 ground duels – which on paper does seem an average return – he ran and ran for 120 minutes and was even involved in one crucial interception as he sprinted from one side of the pitch to another and stopped a dangerous Sociedad counterattack.

Such a night must have been tiring, but also a confidence booster for Vinicius as Real Madrid head into the final two months of the season, still in contention for the three major titles.