Real Madrid beat Villarreal 1-0 at the Bernabéu and moved up to third, six points behind Barcelona. The goal was Yan Diomande's first for the club. The story of the night was Vinícius Júnior, who came on as a substitute, scored, had the goal taken away and was sent off, all within about twenty minutes.
Vinícius on the bench
José Mourinho left Vinícius out of the starting XI. Speaking on Friday, he framed it as help rather than punishment. "Will he always play until 'our' Vini returns, or will the time come when I think the best way of helping him is with a specific plan, which involves him not playing?" Mourinho said.
"What makes me feel bad, and sad, is understanding that he wants to do well, he wants to be the Vinícius who wins games, who wins trophies, who wins Champions Leagues, who makes the difference."
Vinícius has one goal in eight appearances this season.
Half-time changes
It was goalless at the break. Mourinho changed it at half-time. Marc Cucurella came on for Álvaro Carreras, and on 52 minutes Vinícius replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Diomande, after VAR
On 62 minutes Federico Valverde found Diomande in the centre of the box, and he finished low to the bottom left corner. The assistant raised the flag for offside. VAR found Diomande clearly onside and, after a long review, the goal stood. Parts of the Bernabéu had been whistling the team when it went in.
The hair pull
Ten minutes later Vinícius ran onto a Jude Bellingham pass and scored what looked like the second. Mourinho sprinted out of his technical area to celebrate. VAR then sent referee Isidro Díaz de Mera to the monitor. In the build-up, with both players running downfield, Vinícius had pulled the hair of Villarreal substitute Nathan Saliba, without any challenge for the ball.
The goal was ruled out and Vinícius was shown a straight red card for violent conduct. He shouted at the referee as he left and his teammates had to hold him back.
Ten men
Villarreal had 53.7 per cent of the ball and 15 shots to Madrid's 11 across the match. They pushed with Gerard Moreno and Georges Mikautadze off the bench, and Thibaut Courtois made four saves. Madrid collected five yellow cards, including Ibrahima Konaté, Antonio Rüdiger, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Kylian Mbappé in the last ten minutes, and saw out eight minutes of added time.
What it costs
Madrid are third on 18 points from eight games, behind Barcelona on 24 and Atlético on 19. It is a recovery from the 2-1 derby defeat at the Metropolitano before the international break.
The bill for Vinícius is still to come. The Competition Committee will decide the length of the ban, and the key question is whether it treats the hair pull as an aggression. A ban of two games or more would rule him out of Sevilla at home and the Clásico at Camp Nou on 25 October.
Madrid are also short at the back. Raúl Asencio had surgery on 1 October for a stress fracture in his right tibia and is out for two to three months.
