“A hidden cat with its tail sticking out” – Vinicius Junior struggles because of suspension

Real Madrid's star striker Vinicius Junior has criticized his four-game ban for the Spanish league because he found out about it immediately before the Champions League game against AS Roma. Real won the game in Rome 4-3 on Wednesday evening after being 3-1 down. Former German international Antonio Rüdiger scored the winning goal in stoppage time.

Because of the sanction, Vinicius Junior will miss, among other things, the Clásico at FC Barcelona on October 25th. "I think the verdict came at a bad time. They had all day to do it and I heard about it when I arrived at the stadium," said the 26-year-old Brazilian after the game.

Coach José Mourinho also complained that the timing could have an influence. “Ask the committee why they didn’t do it in the morning,” said the Portuguese. One should not forget that Real is a Spanish club - and that their own association is in the parade. "Is it normal for a player to find out two hours before the game that he will be banned for four games?" Mourinho asked the reporters standing around him: "You don't have to answer me. Is that normal? Couldn't they have announced that only now or tomorrow morning? Did they absolutely have to do that when we were on the way to the stadium?"

In Portuguese, Mourinho said, "they say 'a hidden cat with its tail sticking out' - meaning it wants to cover up a wrongdoing but cannot hide an obvious indication. It seems to me that the cat is no longer hiding. The cat does what it wants, you do things quite openly."

“I always keep a cool head,” says Vinicius Junior

The 2024 World Player of the Year was sent off in Real's 1-0 win against Villarreal FC in the Spanish league. His goal to make it 2-0 didn't count because he pulled opponent Nathan Saliba's hair while sprinting across the field. He has now been banned for two games for this offense, and a further two games were added because of his protests against the red card.

He obviously didn't expect to be punished so severely during the game. "To be honest, the rule is new to me, it was never explained to us. Someone always comes from the league or from another refereeing body that I don't know about to explain the new rule to us, but we weren't told anything about that," he reported.

He now said that the red card was correct, but he had never committed a serious foul against an opponent. He gets fouled very often himself. “I always keep a cool head and in the end I always get the card,” said Vinicius Junior, who suffered a fatal loss of the ball in Rome just before the 2-1 defeat and was substituted for Endrick after just under an hour.

Thanks to the comeback victory in Rome, Real are still in a flawless position in the Champions League after two match days. The successful comeback - the Madrilenians were 1:3 behind until the 83rd minute - should give new self-confidence for the rest of October, in which the Madrilenians will face FC Sevilla in the league on Sunday, RB Leipzig in the premier class on Wednesday - with Vinicius Junior - and four days later against FC Barcelona.