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Vinicius Junior has expressed his desire to stay at Real Madrid “forever” following his man-of-the-match display in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
The 22-year-old has established himself as a key player during his five years at the Santiago Bernabeu and is widely regarded as one of the best winger in world football.
Vinicius is enjoying one of the best scoring spells of his career this season, having already netted 21 times in 45 appearances across all competitions including six goals in nine Champions League games.
However, the Brazilian’s playmaker qualities were required against Chelsea, and he set up both of Real Madrid’s goals scored by Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio – registering his 15th and 16th assists of the season – to help the holders secure a two-goal first-leg advantage.
Vinicius has now been directly involved in 20 goals in his last 20 Champions League appearances, scoring 10 times and registering 10 assists, and the winger has spoken about his hunger to be in top condition for the “special” games in Europe’s premier club competition.
Real Madrid have put themselves in a strong position to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals for a fourth successive year, but manager Carlo Ancelotti has insisted that there is still work to be done in the second leg at Stamford Bridge.
“Don’t forget that Chelsea are a good team with good players,” Ancelotti told BT Sport. “We won 2-0 and took advantage of this game. It is not done yet.
“We need to fight and sacrifice at Stamford Bridge. This is normal, it is the quarter-final of the Champions League. We are satisfied for the game. It was a good game and we need to be ready for the next one.
“When we played against 10 men they put in a low block and it was not easy to find a solution. We spent a lot of energy in the game to press high. At the end, we were not so fresh to find a solution. But the result and performance were good.
“I know football really well. My players understand there is another 90 minutes to play. It will be difficult and we have to be ready.”
Real Madrid will now turn their attention to Saturday’s La Liga encounter away against Cadiz before travelling to London for the second leg with Chelsea next Tuesday.
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