ORLANDO — Vinicius Jr scored one and set up another as Real Madrid secured a 3-0 victory over RB Salzburg to seal top spot in Group H and advance to the FIFA Club World Cup round of 16.
The Spaniards finished with seven points; two clear of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, who defeated Pachuca 2-0 in the day’s other group fixture. Austria’s Salzburg, with four points, and Mexican side Pachuca, who failed to register a point, were eliminated.
Real Madrid will next face Group G runners-up Juventus on Tuesday at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, while Al-Hilal takes on Manchester City in Orlando on Monday.
Under steady rain in Philadelphia, Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid dominated proceedings against a lacklustre Salzburg, who created few clear-cut chances.
Salzburg’s 18-year-old goalkeeper Christian Zawieschitzky was sharp from the outset and denied Vinicius an early opener with a point-blank save.
The Brazilian forward squandered further opportunities while Gonzalo Garcia also missed a golden chance from a Vinicius cross near the half-hour mark.
The breakthrough finally arrived in the 40th minute with Jude Bellingham threading a perfectly timed pass through to Vinicius, who danced past two defenders and unleashed from the edge of the box to leave Zawieschitzky with no chance.
Vinicius played a pivotal role in Real’s second during first-half added time, picking up a loose ball in the box and delivering an audacious back-heeled pass to Federico Valverde, who fired home from close range.
Real Madrid maintained control in the second half but continued to waste chances in front of goal and it was not until the 84th minute that Gonzalo Garcia wrapped up the win, lobbing over the Salzburg goalkeeper in a quick counter.
“I’m very happy with the goal and the assist. But now comes the most important part, the knockouts, and we’re looking forward to it,” Vinicius told DAZN.
“The vibes were good. We played very well in the first half, but we were a bit slower in the second. That’s normal given the matches coming up, where we can’t afford to slip up,” Vinicius added according to Reuters.
Real should also be able to call on Kylian Mbappe for the knockout rounds after the French forward missed the entire group stage due to illness.
Mbappe returned to training on Wednesday after being struck down by acute gastroenteritis last week but Alonso said they decided to leave him out of the Salzburg match to allow him to make a full recovery for the knockout stage.
