Brazilian forward fails to step up on a miserable night for Real Madrid at the Emirates | OneFootball

An utterly shambolic performance by Real Madrid led Arsenal to a comfortable 3-0 victory at the Emirates, leaving Los Blancos with a mountain to climb in the 2nd leg.

This was the first time both clubs had faced each other since the 2005/06 quarter-finals where Arsenal won the tie 1-0 on aggregate. Real Madrid did not have a favorable record against the English club, having neither been able to win nor score against the Gunners. This was a record Carlo Ancelotti’s side was eager to change.

The morale was low following a disappointing defeat against Valencia over the weekend, but this was the UEFA Champions League, and somehow or the other, the Merengues always turned up regardless of their form.

Up front was the trio of Vinicius, Kylian Mbappe, and Rodrygo, with the Brazilian duo in particular, being out of form.  Since the start of February in all competitions, Vinicius had scored just thrice with the same number of assists in 16 matches. These were not the returns expected from a player of his caliber and, who vowed to do 10x more, in light of the controversial Ballon D’Or loss.

What followed in the 90 minutes at the Emirates, was perhaps one of the Brazilian’s worst performances in a Real Madrid shirt and easily his worst in the UCL.

William Saliba and Jurriën Timber kept the 2-time UCL winner in check and, made sure that he did not have any space to breathe throughout the match.

To put into perspective as to how bad Vinicius was the fact that he was able to register 3 shots on goal – none of them on target. 1 was blocked and the other 2 were off target.

Moreover, according to Sofascore statistics, he had just 38 touches, completing 14 out of 22 passes he had attempted. The 24-year-old was dispossessed as many as 18 times, further emphasizing how well Arsenal’s defense did to keep him in check. To make matters worse, in his battle with the Gunner’s defensive line, he was able to win just 1 out of 5 ground duels.

Before the Arsenal game, Vinicius had played 33 UCL knockout matches, recording 11 goals and 14 assists in them. For a player of his caliber, with such a record, this performance was a shocking one, to say the least.

Vinícius was amongst the Madrid players who had urged the Santiago Bernabeu to turn up next week and that this was not over yet, as the squad hoped to script an epic comeback.

History says otherwise, as Los Blancos have never overturned a 3-goal deficit in the Champions League, and

The Merengues need nothing short of a miracle to qualify for the semi-finals against a well-drilled Arsenal side but in the famous words of Peter Drury: “Real Madrid is a miracle club, crazy things happen here.”