Vinicius hat-trick, Real crush Dortmund
Defending champions Real Madrid runners-up Dortmund 5-2, despite being two goals behind in the third round of the 2024-2025 Champions League.
The 2024 Ballon d’Or is approaching, as candidate Vinicius Junior continues to shine with his first hat-trick in 9 months. Just like in the 2024 Champions League final, the Brazilian striker scored against Dortmund and helped Real Madrid win the title for the 14th time.
History has recorded a team coming back from a two-goal deficit in the Champions League to win by three goals. That team is Real Madrid, and they have done it twice: against Liverpool in the Round of 16 in 2023 and in today’s match against Dortmund. Vinicius scored a total of five goals in these two matches
This time, Real had a harder time, trailing 0-2 until the 60th minute, but scored five goals in the remaining time to crush their German opponents. In addition to Vinicius’ three goals, center-back Antonio Rudiger and right-back Lucas Vazquez also contributed to the victory of Carlo Ancelotti’s team.
History has just recorded a team that was two goals behind in the Champions League, but then still won by three goals. That’s Real, and they did it twice, against Liverpool in the round of 16 in 2023 and against Dortmund on the evening of October 22. Vinicius scored five goals in those two matches.
Two of Vinicius’ three goals were one-off masterpieces. In the 86th minute, Jude Bellingham dived to the ball from Emre Can’s feet so Vinicius could run from near the home team’s penalty area, along the left flank. The 24-year-old star then dribbled the ball into the middle, then curled the ball into the far corner from nearly 20 meters away, making it 4-2.
After the beautiful goal and securing the victory, Vinicius took off his shirt, threw it in the air, and pointed to the ground with both hands in front of a sea of white-shirted fans cheering. The performance of “number 7” in the Champions League easily reminded Real Madrid fans of club legend Cristiano Ronaldo. They sang in unison for the Brazilian star: “How could we not love you?”.
In the final minute, Vinicius still received the ball near the middle of the field, dribbling past two players into the penalty area. This time he did not switch to his right foot, but brought the ball to the left wing and shot into the near corner, hitting the roof of the Dortmund net, sealing a 5-2 victory. After the goal, Vinicius danced the samba, ending the goal at the Bernabeu.
Before that, the match had gone completely in Dortmund’s favor. The visitors scored two goals in four minutes in the first half, thanks to Donyell Malen and 20-year-old midfielder Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. During this period, the home team hit the crossbar twice in a row, from Rodrygo and then Bellingham.
But Real always has a magical vitality in the Champions League, and this was another chance for the defending champions to prove it. In the 60th minute, Kylian Mbappe crossed from the right for Rudiger to head into the Dortmund net without anyone marking him. Two minutes later, Vinicius tapped the ball into an empty net after Nico Schlotterbeck’s clearance in front of Mbappe’s boot. In the 83rd minute, captain Julian Brandt’s cutback accidentally turned into a through ball for Vazquez to run down the right side of the penalty area, before the 33-year-old defender fired a powerful shot into the far corner to give the home team a 3-2 lead.
At the end of the match, the Bernabeu crowd once again sang in support of Vinicius winning the Ballon d’Or. He has the best chance of winning the award, and will play another important match against Barca in La Liga on the evening of October 26, before heading to the Chatelet theater in Paris to wait for the honor.