The scars remain and there is much to be fixed still but this was a step towards reconciliation. It was something of a statement too, and not just in the goals scored but the reaction to them. Nine days after Xabi Alonso’s sacking, six after their captain said they had hit rock bottom with Copa del Rey elimination and three after the protest of a generation, white hankies and whistles greeting the players and even the president, there were songs and support at last as Real Madrid defeated Monaco 6-1.
Kylian Mbappé, Franco Mastantuono and Jude Bellingham all scored, while there was an own goal from Monaco’s Thilo Kehrer. More significantly still, the man who had been at the centre of the storm made three of the six goals and smashed in a superb strike of his own. And if Vinícius Júnior, who had stood accused before the game and stood with the MVP trophy at the end of it, wasn’t entirely ready to share his moment with fans yet, his first goal here since October saw teammates come to his side. He then hugged his new coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, who claimed that was the embrace of the whole of Madrid.
Celebrations from his teammates were more demonstrative, speaking to what they had been through. Mbappé had marked the first of his two by asking for forgiveness, while Bellingham stepped round the keeper to add the sixth and celebrated with a drinking gesture following rumours of his supposed off-field habits and his part in Alonso’s fall. He had already called those “a load of shit” and, smiling now, his on-pitch response was even more pointed, and done from a position of power, at the end of an impressive performance.
“A lot of people say a lot of things,” he told TNT after the game. “There are two ways you can take it: you can cry about it and moan or send a lawyer or you can just roll with it and enjoy it. I know the truth. I know what really goes on in my personal life, what I give. It’s nice to have a bit of a joke.”
There was a smile too as Bellingham looked back on Saturday, when he and his Madrid teammates had been whistled for 90 long minutes. “It was a little bit different, yeah,” he said. “It’s not always very helpful and it’s not the nicest thing in the world. But the fans are entitled to their opinion, and the way we have to react is the way we have the last two games.”
For Vinícius in particular, Saturday had been an ordeal and although the pain remained he reacted with a superb display here. The moment he had stormed off the pitch and down the tunnel during the clasico in October had been seen as the beginning of the end for Alonso and against Levante he heard – shockingly loud and clear – what supporters thought. That he carried the blame, becoming an easy scapegoat, had hurt. “We have to support Vini,” Mbappé had said on Monday and now they did when the Brazilian had dribbled through the Monaco defence and hit a sensational shot into the top corner on 63 minutes.
That was the fifth of what had been a fun night – there have been too few of those – and the Bernabéu erupted. Vinícius didn’t go towards the supporters; instead he went back to the centre circle head down, where teammates gathered. “The last few days were very complicated; I don’t want to be in the spotlight for what I do off the pitch,” he said afterwards.
“It hasn’t been the easiest week.” Mbappé had said. This on the other hand was, a first public apology coming early. They hadn’t been playing five minutes when Mastantuono and Fede Valverde teed up Mbappé to sweep in his tenth Champions League goal of the season. As he celebrated, he raised his hands in prayer position.
Monaco put up little resistance, even if Folarin Balogun shot wide and Ansu Fati skied a shot over the bar from six yards. At the moment when it seemed Madrid were losing control they scored the second, soon reasserting themselves again. It was superbly constructed, too. A pirouette from Eduardo Camavinga found Arda Guler, who turned the ball into the run of Vinícius. With the outside of his boot, he played it across for Mbappé to score and make a point of signalling the passer.
Something had shifted, seen too in moments when things went wrong. The shackles fell, as Bellingham put it: Vinícius, he said, needs to feel the love. And although some whistles met Vinícius losing the ball with a turn, they were immediately drowned out by applause and support. Fans had concluded that they too could help the healing and the third and fourth followed early in the second half, Vinícius creating both. First he found Mastantuono to steer in, then Kehrer turned his cross into the net.
Vinícius maintained an unusual and conspicuous low profile in the celebrations, but from behind the goal came chants of his name which got even louder when he got the fifth, the Brazilian heading into the comforting embrace of his teammates. And although Madrid did concede through Jordan Teze, a sixth came too, Bellingham raising a smile and a glass.
