As has been the case several times already this season, Real Madrid once again found themselves in a pickle as they visited Rome to face AS Roma in their second UEFA Champions League game of the new season.
The Merengues conceded an early goal, but were able to go into the half-time break at 1-1, following a goal from Kylian Mbappe. However, things got worse in the second half, as the team went down to 3-1 in the 57th minute.
At this point, Jose Mourinho was pressed into making adjustments, and the first change he made was to bring on Endrick, who had played only four minutes prior to that game this season, for Vinicius Junior.
The Brazilian forward surprisingly turned out to be one of the differential factors for Los Blancos, as he helped them immensely to turn the score around and get a 4-3 win. With his energy and dynamism, he brought a lot of life into the Real Madrid attack, and was directly involved in two of the goals, scoring the equalizer himself from a corner.
As MARCA has reported, Endrick talked to the media after getting the Man of the Match award for this performance. The young forward assured that he will continue fighting for a place in the team and expressed his excitement after such an excellent performance:
“I’m still caught up in the emotion of the match. It’s a little difficult to explain. I was on the bench talking to God, and when I turned around, they were calling me. I carried on talking to God. I didn’t think I would come on so early.
I want to help my team and the manager, too. The most important thing is for Madrid to win. When I can no longer do that, I’ll be the first to leave. Playing for Madrid is difficult, and I’m going to fight for my place every day.”
Endrick assured that the team will continue fighting for all the titles:
“It was difficult because I was with Mourinho. I lowered my head, and when I looked up again, Malen had scored another goal. But we are Madrid, and we are going to fight in every match, whatever happens. That’s what we’ve done, and we’ll keep fighting. We still have the Champions League, the Copa del Rey, La Liga and all the other competitions, and we want to win them all.”
Despite this good performance, the Brazilian was not sure whether he will get more chances of playing but still was looking to help his team as much as he can:
“I don’t know. Managers don’t do what is best for an individual player; they do what is best for the team. I’m going to keep fighting and working every day to help the team. That’s what I’ll do throughout my career.”
The Real Madrid forward also expressed his indignation after seeing Vinicius getting suspended for four games:
“Deep down, we knew it was supposed to be two matches, but in our hearts, we knew it wasn’t going to be two. What they are doing to Vini is crazy, and it isn’t going to change. We knew it would be like this, that they would go after Vini. He’s a strong guy who always fights against everything, and when he comes back, he’ll come back in great shape.”
Endrick has made a very good case for more prominence in Jose Mourinho’s plans after this incredible performance. Hopefully, the Real Madrid coach will reward the Brazilian and he will get more playing time in the coming few weeks, especially as Vinicius’ absence will allow the Portuguese coach to experiment a bit with his forward line.