Very few teams are able to bring such a good player off the bench and for Real Madrid, who were in the midst of a pretty miserable performance, the introduction of Vinicius Jr. was crucial. The Brazilian was given a rare rest but sparked Los Blancos into life after coming on and saw them turn a 1-0 deficit into a 4-1 victory, masking another puzzling performance.

Los Blancos were a rather static side in the first half, relying too heavily on moments of inspiration from Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham. The result was a dreary affair in which a sloppy Madrid created few clear-cut chances.

Espanyol took advantage of this ten minutes into the second half. Their first goal was a piece of slapstick play, a deliberate hoof-kick from the goalkeeper across the pitch into the path of Jofre Carreras, who sprinted down the wing and saw his speculative cross roll through the tangled legs of Thibaut Courtois and into the net.

Los Blancos took four minutes to respond, with Vinicius the catalyst after coming on after the hour mark. He was instrumental in setting up the equaliser when Dani Carvajal hammered the ball home. He was even more important on the second goal, his trivela pass falling perfectly to the feet of Rodrygo who couldn't miss to make it 2-1. He scored himself on the third, cutting through the middle and firing into the bottom corner with his left foot before Mbappe slotted home the fourth from the penalty spot just before the end.

Madrid were not particularly captivating here, but Vinicius showed that incorporating a very good player into a football match is ultimately an effective strategy.

GOAL rates the Real Madrid players from the Santiago Bernabeu …