Vinicius stars as Real Madrid ease into Club World Cup last 16 – 1v1 Video Chat & LIve Streaming & Influencer Subscription

League of Ireland

Horse Racing

TV Listings

GAA Fixtures
The Video Review

Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture

Rugby Weekly Extra

Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week

The Football Family

Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points

More Stories

Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side’s first goal.Alamy Stock Photo

Freein control

Vinicius stars as Real Madrid ease into Club World Cup last 16

Real set up a last-16 tie against Juventus in Miami on Tuesday.

7.29am, 27 Jun 2025

Share options

VINICIUS JUNIOR SCORED one goal and made another with a touch of class as Real Madrid sealed their place in the last 16 of the Club World Cup with a 3-0 win over Salzburg on Thursday.

The Brazil star opened the scoring after a superb defence-splitting pass by Jude Bellingham on 40 minutes and then set up Federico Valverde for the all-important second goal in first-half stoppage time.

Gonzalo Garcia wrapped up the win late on with his second goal of the tournament, and the result means Xabi Alonso’s team end the first round of FIFA’s new tournament unbeaten.

They go through to the knockout stage as Group H winners on seven points, setting up a last-16 tie against Juventus in Miami on Tuesday.

Salzburg go out as Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia progress in second place behind Real after defeating already eliminated Pachuca of Mexico 2-0 in Nashville.

They play Manchester City in the last 16.

Madrid are adjusting in the United States to life under new coach Alonso and were again without top scorer Kylian Mbappe, with the Frenchman thus far not having played at the Club World Cup as he recovers from illness.

But there was still plenty of star appeal for the 64,811 fans who filled Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia almost to capacity — they reserved their loudest cheers for Bellingham and spirits were not dampened by wet, fresh conditions as the blistering heatwave of recent days suddenly lifted.

– Alonso opts for back three –

Alonso opted, as during his time in charge of Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, for a back three with Aurelien Tchouameni in between Antonio Rudiger and Dean Huijsen. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Fran Garcia played as wing-backs.

Real won 5-1 when the teams met in the Champions League in January with Vinicius scoring twice, and the Brazilian was again heavily involved in putting the Austrian team to the sword here.

He was denied by goalkeeper Christian Zawieschitzky when clean through on 20 minutes, but made up for that by getting the breakthrough as the interval approached.

The goal owed much to a fantastic pass by Bellingham which found Vinicius in between the two Salzburg centre-backs. He held off two chasing defenders and scored with an early left-foot shot low into the corner.

It was a 22nd goal of the season in all competitions and one that delighted those backing Real in the crowd.

Petar Ratkov had a chance for Salzburg after Arda Guler was dispossessed just outside his own area, but Real scored again to make it 2-0 almost on the half-time whistle.

When a rather aimless pass forward by Guler was deflected by Salzburg’s Mamady Diambou, Vinicius pounced on the loose ball and continued into the area before producing a clever back-heel to set up Valverde for the goal.

Salzburg now needed a favour from Al Hilal to stay in the competition although they did continue to make a fight of it and had chances to reduce the deficit in the second half.

Nevertheless they were picked off on the counter as Madrid got their third with six minutes of the 90 remaining.

A ball forward by Alexander-Arnold should have been cut out by Joane Gadou but the young defender’s touch was intercepted by Gonzalo Garcia and the young forward ran through before clipping a shot beyond the goalkeeper.

– © AFP 2025

Viewcomments

Send Tip or Correction

Embed this post

To embed this post, copy the code below on your site

Email “Vinicius stars as Real Madrid ease into Club World Cup last 16”.

Recipient’s Email

Feedback on “Vinicius stars as Real Madrid ease into Club World Cup last 16”.

Your Feedback

Your Email (optional)

Report a Comment

Please select the reason for reporting this comment.

Please give full details of the problem with the comment…

This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy

before taking part.