Dani Carvajal, captain of Real Madrid, defended his teammate, Brazilian Vinícius Junior, who has gone 16 matches without scoring. He expressed his conviction that this Sunday's final in the Spanish Supercopa against Barcelona will be “an important day for ‘Vini’” and downplayed the spats that occur during matches. “Vini is an extremely important player for us, and he knows how important he is for us. And the Real Madrid players reminded him of that on the pitch,” Carvajal stated. “Lamine Yamal is a young guy, and I think he wasn't totally right with those statements on the eve of a classic, but let's leave it at that. The important thing is that we are in the final with the opportunity to lift a new trophy,” he explained, without wanting to go into details. On the other hand, Carvajal also did not want to add fuel to the fire of the clash he had with Lamine Yamal, a Barcelona player, in last October's classic in La Liga. In that match, Yamal's words in the days before set the tone for the pre-match build-up... and the match itself. “He is going to have a great match tomorrow, and he has already experienced the run of not scoring goals or his game not being at its best right now… but it is crystal clear that Vinícius is an incredible player, and I am convinced that tomorrow will be an important day for him,” he commented at a press conference. “Vinícius is mature and professional enough not to get involved in these spats. He likes it when the rival provokes him because he provokes back, and he rises to the occasion in those situations, which motivates him even more to have a good game,” he assessed about the exchanges with rivals and coaches. One of them was with Atlético Madrid coach Diego Simeone in last Thursday's derby, after which the manager approached Carvajal to discuss it. “We have a mutual appreciation. I don't wish him the best tomorrow, obviously, but it shouldn't be given more importance than it deserves,” he recalled. You may be interested Supercopa: Carvajal says tomorrow will be an important day for Vinícius January 10, 2026 Anthony Davis is injured again: ligament damage in a hand January 09, 2026 Kylian Mbappé is already in Saudi Arabia for the Supercopa final against Barça January 09, 2026 Everardo Rose was presented by Ecuador's Universidad Católica January 09, 2026 Ricardo 'The Scientist' Núñez seeks to secure his second chance as a starter January 09, 2026 Each one tries to defend their own at the club level. The '10' said “they rob, they complain and do things...” at a 'Kings League' event. He gave me his impression and I gave him mine, and we kept it between us. We defend our club to the death.
