In the Spanish Super Cup final, Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr. produced a spectacular half-hour hat trick in the El Clasico to give his club a 3-1 lead against FC Barcelona.
The Brazilian initially grabbed a through pass from Jude Bellingham, catching Jules Kounde, the final man at center defense for Barcelona, asleep.
The 23-year-old, who grew up playing futsal in Rio de Janeiro, had little chance of failing to round Inaki Pena with the outside of his right boot and then slide the ball into an empty net to light up KSU Stadium on fire after seven minutes.
On the official account of the Spanish Football Federation, a tweet containing the goal scored in the seventh minute read, “VINI JR DOESN’T FORGIVE 0.0%.”.
After making remarks about players opting to continue their careers in Saudi Arabia, Toni Kroos was jeered from the start by the locals, but Vini didn’t have to wait long for his second goal.
The German struck the hour Similar to Kounde in the last move, Andreas Christensen switched off and superbly played Rodrygo in with a through pass.
The Santos Academy product surged towards Pena’s goal, and as Vinicius slid into the net with the ball in tow, Ronald Araujo was powerless at the back post.
If Barca had any dwindling aspirations of regaining the title they had won against the same opponents in 2023, they had a mountain to climb after falling behind 2-0 in just 10 minutes.
In a way, Xavi, the head coach of the Catalans, was forced to regret his remarks during the pre-game news conference on Saturday when he stated that Barca is only a “hair” behind Carlo Ancelotti’s team, who are now leading La Liga.
Vinicius ensured that Los Blancos would have a flawless start, positioning the Italian to become Madrid’s second-most successful head coach after Zinedine Zidane with 11 trophies.
After 32 minutes, Robert Lewandowski gave Barca hope with a spectacular volley past Andriy Lunin to make it 2-1 in Riyadh.
But it appeared to be in vain, as Vinicius scored a hat trick in the closing minutes of the game with a penalty that Pena ought to have saved better.