The Brazilian national team slipped up yet again in their most recent South American qualifier. Although victories against Chile and Peru in the October international window extinguished the crisis that seemed to have flared up under Dorival Junior, this month’s draw against Venezuela once again brings the debate back to the media tables in the country of the ‘Selecao’.
In this disappointing 1-1 draw, Vinicius Junior missed a penalty that could have swung the game in his side’s favour. It came in the 62nd minute, when the score was 1-1, and he had a spot-kick that he struck low to the far post. He did not adjust his shot too much to his safe side and the goalkeeper, Rafael Romo, dived low to keep out the spot kick.
This is the first official occasion on which the Real Madrid star has missed a penalty kick. Previously, it had only happened in ‘El Clasico’ of the Soccer Champions Tour that was held in July last year, 2023, and in a friendly match with the U20 of his national team back in October 2018 -against Chile-. The other seven shots he has had have all ended up in the back of the net.
For more detail, his victims have been, in reverse chronological order, Guinea -a friendly in June 2023-, Barcelona -final of the Spanish Super Cup in 2024-, Barcelona again -day 32 of last season’s La Liga-, Bayern Munich -semi-final of the previous Champions League-, Las Palmas -day 3 of the current campaign-, Real Sociedad -day 5 of the same period- and Milan -regular phase of the current top European competition-.