Vinícius Júnior said his “crying” celebration after scoring in Real Madrid‘s 2-1 win at Manchester City on Tuesday was a response to last season’s “stop crying your heart out” banner from City fans.
The star forward scored twice in the round-of-16 second leg clash — converting a 22nd-minute penalty and then grabbing a second in added time — as Madrid progressed to the Champions League quarterfinals 5-1 on aggregate.
When the two teams met in February of 2025, fans in Manchester displayed a banner picturing midfielder Rodri holding the Ballon d’Or, which he had won ahead of Vinícius.
After missing a penalty in last week’s first leg, Vinicius sent keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way with Tuesday’s spot kick, and celebrated by posing, then leaning on the corner flag, before making a prolonged ‘crying’ gesture with both hands.
“Football is good like that, there’s always another opportunity,” Vinícius told Movistar after the game. “We’ve won here and we’re into the quarterfinals.”
TV cameras also later showed Vinicius making a “4-0” gesture to the crowd at the Etihad Stadium, reflecting Madrid’s aggregate lead at that point.
The Brazil international had a busy night, having another second-half goal disallowed, and ending with a total of seven shots, three of them on target, and a personal xG (expected goals) of 2.58.
“It’s a very important game for our confidence,” Vinícius told Movistar. “From the start of the season we’ve had some good games, but we haven’t always controlled them like we did in this tie.
“We were clear what we had to do, work hard and take our chances, even though I missed a lot of them!”
Vinicius said he’d wanted Federico Valverde to take the penalty, after the Brazilian had been unable to convert his spot kick at the Bernabéu, where Valverde scored a hat trick.
“I wanted Fede to take it last week, but he didn’t want to, and I missed,” Vinícius said. “Again today, I told him to take it, but he gave me confidence as the captain, and I was able to score and help the team.”
Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois was substituted at half-time and replaced by Andriy Lunin, but coach Álvaro Arbeloa later played down injury fears ahead of Sunday’s derby with Atlético Madrid in LaLiga.
“It was a precaution,” Arbeloa told Movistar. “He had some slight discomfort and we didn’t want to risk him at all. I hope he’ll be with us on Sunday.”
