Until now, Vinícius Jr had not been able to pick up the torch, in terms of prominence and determination, left vacant by Neymar as Brazil’s main star. However, last night, he redeemed himself with a goal in the 99th minute of the match, which ultimately gave Brazil the victory over Colombia, temporarily placing them in second position in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

Vinícius's first big night with Brazil

Since Tite debuted him in September 2019, Vinícius Jr had only been able to score five goals in 37 matches for Brazil. Two in the Copa América, one in the 2022 World Cup, another in the South American qualifiers... and the last in a friendly match. Very poor numbers for a player destined to bring glory back to Brazil.

But with this goal against Colombia, Vinícius has managed to redeem himself after missing a penalty against Venezuela in November: "I think I deserve this goal for everything I've worked for. I owe so much to the national team for everything they’ve done for me and for what my teammates do for me every day. I'm so happy! And I love seeing Brazilians happy,” he said after the match.

Raphinha lost it with Vinícius

In addition to the winning goal, Vinícius also won a penalty early in the match that put Brazil ahead. However, the one who took the penalty wasn’t him… it was Raphinha, who gave Vinícius the scolding of a lifetime right after Vinícius scored the winning goal when Dorival Jr decided to substitute him for Léo Ortiz with the goal of squeezing out a few seconds from the clock.

Vinícius got the message and started wasting time by pulling down his socks. However, Raphinha pushed him to hurry up and leave the field, aware that if the referee showed him a yellow card for time-wasting, Vinícius would miss the next match and not travel with Brazil to Buenos Aires to face Argentina at El Monumental.