“Never stop dreaming,” wrote Vinicius Junior shortly realising a childhood goal on Thursday: playing in the FIFA World Cup™. The electrifying winger was tipped to be among the substitutes for Brazil’s Qatar 2022 opener against Serbia, but he started and had a hand in both goals in a 2-0 victory. “I was happy with the confidence the coach had in me,” Vinicius told FIFA+ of getting the nod. “Obviously it’s tough because we have a lot of attackers. Raphinha has come here playing really well, Richarlison too. And you don’t even have to discuss Ney. “I’m happy about my debut. The squad worked hard to be able to play an excellent game. We tried in the first half, but it was really difficult because Serbia defended in numbers.”

It was, indeed, 0-0 at the interval. Vinicius, however, was never worried Brazil would slip up. “We knew that they would tire,” he said. “They came out really strong in the first half, having to chase after us a lot. We ended up tiring them out and in the second half.” Richarlison walked off the pitch at full-time in a superhero’s cape, but Vinciius revealed ‘Pombo’ wasn’t all smiles and celebrations at the interval.

I’ve been training it a lot – Ney even complains sometimes that I keep kicking it with three toes,” said the Real Madrid No20. “I’ve learned a lot about it from Modric and I end up doing it a lot in games.” Brazil return to action against Serbia on Monday.