Real Madrid visit Barcelona at Camp Nou on Sunday for the first Clásico of the season. Vinícius Júnior will miss the match. SI says this will be the first Clásico Vinícius Júnior has missed since the turn of the decade.
Why he is unavailable
Vinícius Júnior already missed Real Madrid’s 4-1 win over Sevilla in La Liga. SI says he was handed a four-match ban after being sent off for pulling the hair of Villarreal midfielder Nathan Saliba a fortnight earlier.
SI says the straight red brought an automatic two-match suspension before an additional two games were added to his ban due to his “aggressive” reaction.
A long run comes to an end
SI says Vinícius Júnior had featured in Real Madrid’s most recent 21 matches against Barcelona, including the last 13 in La Liga.
SI also says the only two El Clásicos he had missed since joining Real Madrid came in his first 18 months at the club.
The earlier matches he missed
SI says Vinícius Júnior was not part of Julen Lopetegui’s squad for the first El Clásico of the 2018-19 season, which Barcelona won 5-1. SI says Luis Suárez scored a hat trick in that win, Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring, Arturo Vidal scored Barcelona’s fifth, and Marcelo scored for Real Madrid.
SI says Lopetegui was fired a day after that defeat. SI also says Vinícius Júnior made his El Clásico debut in February in a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal.
The December 2019 draw
SI says the last El Clásico without Vinícius Júnior was in December 2019, when he was an unused substitute in a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou. SI says Federico Valverde and Frenkie de Jong featured for the first time in a league Clásico in that scoreless draw.
SI says that match remains the last Clásico that ended in a scoreless draw.