Manchester United took on Real Madrid in their final pre-season friendly in the United States but for the Los Blancos, this was their first friendly of the summer.
This also meant that newly appointed manager Julen Lopetegui got the chance to produce his first ever team sheet for the reigning European champions.
While Jose Mourinho chose to field a much-experienced side for the game his counterpart, on the other hand, chose to name a very young and inexperienced side at the Hard Rock Stadium.
This meant that 18-year-old Vinicius Junior got a chance to make his first-team debut after being officially unveiled as a Real Madrid player some 10 days ago.
Real Madrid paid a reported fee of €46 million to Flamengo in order to acquire the services of the Brazilian and the management have pretty high hopes from the youngster.
And clearly Vinicius Junior did not disappoint.
He was deployed on the wing by Lopetegui and the 18-year-old showed in glimpses of what he was capable of – using tricks and neat stepovers to get past the Man United defenders on a number of occasions.
But the forward has been compared to his fellow Brazilian Neymar especially after one piece of video which has been circulating on the internet.
In this video, Vinicius Junior is seen doing a neat trick to get past Man United full-back Matteo Darmian and then suddenly he falls to the ground holding his face.
At first glance, it might seem that Vinicius Junior might have been caught on the fact by Darmian’s arm but replays showed that it was nothing but an embarrassing dive from the teenager.
And immediately the fans have been claiming that Vinicius Junior has the same diving instinct of Neymar.
Neymar who of course played for Barcelona before moving to PSG last summer is known as a big-time diver and was especially criticized during Brazil’s performance in the 2018 World Cup.
While Neymar and Vinicius Junior do have a common love for diving there’s no denying that like his Brazilian mate, Vinicius too is highly talented and is poised to have a glittering future in Europe.
Here are some hilarious fan reactions:
Everyone: "Neymar Jr.'s dives are embarrassing, just give him the 2018 Fallon d'Floor now!"
Vinicius Jr: "Hold my beer…" 🍻🤦🏼 https://t.co/1tJINX3qrY
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) August 1, 2018
Just seen a gif of the Vinicius Jr dive. Take a bow son, drinks on me sir, round of applause. Dive was so entertaining I had to play Drake's Best I Ever Had.
— Henri Hilario (@HilarioHenri) August 1, 2018
'Vinicius Jr embracing the Neymar challenge I see': Real Madrid starlet mocked for ridiculous dive in pre-season clash with Manchester United as ref is fooled into giving free-kick pic.twitter.com/rCXz3As1qB
— Lilian Chan (@bestgug) August 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/utd_tweet/status/1024467614364512258
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