Vinicius Jr. Under Fire After Real Madrid's Surprising Loss To Valencia
Real Madrid are coming off a surprising 2-1 loss to Valencia over the weekend — a result that raised eyebrows, especially with Valencia sitting near the bottom of the La Liga table and fighting to avoid relegation.
One of the players criticized in the loss is Vinicius Jr. after the Brazilian missed a penalty kick in the first half. While the 24-year-old did redeem himself by scoring in the 50th minute, the missed penalty would later come back to haunt the squad, as they lost by one goal.
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Two pundits discussed the situation on Cadena SER, with journalist Antonio Romero pointing out that Real Madrid fans feel Vinicius’ form has dropped this season in response to the boos that the player received during the game (via Bernabeu Digital).
I interpret the first boos as stemming from fans thinking that [Kylian] Mbappe takes penalties better than Vinicius, and also because there’s a feeling this year at the Bernabéu that the Brazilian has dipped a little. Ancelotti has gotten himself into a mess with penalties since the start of the season.Antonio Romero
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Meanwhile, the other pundit on the program, Julio Pulido, echoed that the Brazilian attacker is slowly losing support from the fanbase.
The fact that there are fans now who are even slightly booing him when he makes a mistake is noteworthy, just like it’s noteworthy that he’s no longer so untouchable for Ancelotti.Julio Pulido
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Vinicius will look to have a bounce-back performance midweek as Real Madrid face Arsenal in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
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Eduardo is an experienced freelance football writer covering Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG On SI. He also covers PSG for PSG Talk and French football for Ligue 1's official English website. He's contributed to NBC Sports' regional sports networks, including NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, providing in-depth sports content for those markets.