Carlo Ancelotti’s son explained why Bruno Guimaraes took a penalty vs Norway instead of Vinicius Jr. However, now it’s the Brazil winger the one giving his own version of events about what happened.
“Ancelotti decides before the match who will take the penalties, and he chose Bruno. I’ve never shied away from responsibility. I take penalties at Real Madrid when the coach chooses me,” Vinicius Jr. said.
He also backed up his teammate Guimaraes. “The coach chose Bruno to take the penalty because he had been training them well over the last few days. Unfortunately, these things happen in the game. Unfortunately, Bruno missed, but I hope this doesn’t tarnish his career with the national team.”
Vinicius Jr.’s numbers from the penalty spot
Per Transfermarkt, Vinicius Jr. has taken 19 penalties in his career, scoring 13 and missing six in his career. That is a mere 68.4% efficiency from the spot. Per stats site OptaJoe, that is a below average number, as normally a decent penalty taker oscilates between 75% to 82%.
Vinicius Junior #7 of Brazil
Hence, it’s not like avoiding Vinicius to shoot the penalty was an outrageous decision by Ancelotti. In fact, it was a good one. It just so happened that Bruno Guimaraes wasn’t able to score, but Vini didn’t guarantee a score by any means.
Brazil had too many chances to beat Norway
Not only did Brazil had two penalties in this game (Neymar scored the other one), but they arguably created more clear chances than Norway in this game. Now, Brazil are out of the 2026 World Cup.
Besides the two penalties, Norway’s goalkeeper Nyland was incredible, and Endrick missed a wide open shot as well. Hence, Brazil have no one to blame but themselves for their worst finish in World Cup history.
