Vinicius reached 50 Champions League appearances as the youngest Brazilian ever

Real Madrid won a hard fought match against RB Leipzig and took the first step towards a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Carlo Ancelotti's side had a great ally in the video refereeing in the early stages and then sealed the win with a great goal from Brahim. In the closing stages, they could have made the lead even bigger had Vinicius not hit the woodwork on a counter-attack with just under 20 minutes to go.

Although he could not have been as prominent as he would have liked, the Brazilian attacker did reach his first big tally in a European context. Vinicius has now made 50 appearances in the Champions League, a competition in which he starred in the 2022 final when he scored the winning goal against Liverpool in Paris.

At 23, no other Brazilian had played so many games in the continent's premier continental competition. Rodrygo's 46 is approaching his 50th, and he could yet match his tally in 2024. Far behind him are Marquinhos' 37, Marcelo's 36, Anderson's 35, Kaka's 34, Lucas Moura's 31 and the 27 of Neymar, Gabriel Jesus and Alex Teixeira.

Comparing his achievement with that of players of all nationalities, only Iker Casillas (64), Kylian Mbappe (59), Leo Messi (57), Cesc (55), Raul (54) and David Alaba (51) played more at the age of 23. Vinicius is locked in a nice little tussle with Phil Foden, who also reached 50 Champions League nights at Manchester City on Tuesday. The pair this season leapfrogged both Wayne Rooney (48) and Raphael Varane (48), who, according to BeSoccer Pro data, have played the most times up to the age of 23 in the top club competition.

In the historical ranking of Brazilians, Vinicius is still far from the top 10, which is headed by Roberto Carlos with 120 appearances. Dani Alves made 111 appearances, Thiago Silva 105, Fernandinho 103, Marcelo 102 and, below the hundred mark, Maxwell (94), Kaka (86), Marquinhos (86), Casemiro (83) and Lucio (83).

Back to Vinicius' official numbers in European competition, his most common opponents, with 6 meetings, have been Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea. As for goals, Liverpool, with 5 goals in 5 games, have been the favourites of the Brazilian. On the other hand, in terms of assists, Chelsea stand out, against whom he has provided 4 assists in the aforementioned 6 meetings.

In total, the Brazilian star has scored in 14 different games and Liverpool and Shakhtar Donetsk take the lead in this statistic, as he has scored in 3 different games out of the 5 and 6 played respectively against these teams. The 'Merengue' winger has also scored 3 braces, 2 against the Reds and 1 against the Ukrainians, and has scored the first goal of the game 4 times, 2 against Anfield and 1 against both Celtic and Manchester City.

The balance of victories is led by Inter and Liverpool with 4; one draw against Chelsea, Brugge, Gladbach, Manchester City, Liverpool and Shakhtar Donetsk; and 3 defeats in 5 matches against Manchester City, his bogey side in the continent's top competition.