Vinicius Jr. offers Mo Salah a wordless Instagram message after beating him on Wednesday.

Vinicius Jr. paid tribute to Mohamed Salah after Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in the Champions League

On Wednesday, the two faced off on the Santiago Bernabeu wing, with Vinicius one again coming out on top. In five games versus the Reds, the Brazilian has yet to lose.

Vinicius was a thorn in Liverpool’s side throughout both legs. He assisted Karim Benzema on Wednesday night after scoring two key goals in the first encounter at Anfield.

Nevertheless, while it was the younger man who shone this time, he clearly admires his Liverpool counterpart.

Vinicius tweeted a picture of himself and Salah hugging on the field on his Instagram stories yesterday. It’s evident what the 22-year-old thinks of our Mo after tagging Liverpool’s Egyptian King and adding a shooting star emoji.

Respect grows between longstanding adversaries.
After knocking out Liverpool yet again, you may expect some gloating from Madrid players. Undoubtedly, players like Luka Modric have not been respectful in previous victories over the Reds.

Yet, this time around, the match has been entirely courteous. From Liverpool’s flower homage to Madrid’s late honorary president Amancio to Real Madrid blasting out YNWA at the end of Wednesday’s game, there has been a lot of music. The clubs had a true sense of mutual regard for one another.

Without a doubt, some supporters will be upset. There’s validity to the idea that they’re being friendly to us because they don’t perceive us as a danger.

Real Madrid has defeated Liverpool in each of the last three Champions League campaigns. Extending it back to 2017/18, the Reds have been defeated by Los Blancos in four of the last six seasons. When you consider that two of those were finals, it really adds up.

So there may be some of that, and some may even indicate a sense of pity for Madrid and their players’ behavior. Yet that is not how we view things. After several hard-fought confrontations on the grandest stage in recent years, we see one massive club paying tribute to another massive club. We’ll be back, and this time we’ll win!