Zinedine Zidane and Vinicius Junior have not always seen eye to eye but they could be Real Madrid’s golden ticket to a win in Saturday’s Clasico and move above in-form Barcelona at the top of La Liga.
Zidane gambled on Vinicius’ raw talent on Tuesday by starting him up front with Karim Benzema, and the 20-year-old repaid his manager with the two goals that have put Madrid 90 minutes from the Champions League semi-finals.
It’s all a far cry from last July when Zidane left Vinicius out of his starting line-up to face Manchester City and the Brazilian responded by looking at his phone in the dressing room instead of warming-up.