Vinicius Junior apologizes to the Brazil fans after their 1-0 loss to Paraguay in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying on Tuesday.
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Vinicius apologizes to Brazil
With the loss, Brazil dropped to fifth in the CONMEBOL standings, behind Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, and Ecuador.
Vinicius started the game alongside his Real Madrid teammates, Rodrygo and Endrick.
However, Brazil failed to respond after Diego Gomez put Paraguay ahead 20 minutes into the match.
“We apologise to the fans, who are always on our side,” Vinicius told Sportv.
“But this is a difficult time, we just want to improve… I know my potential, I know what I can do for the national team. Of course it’s been a very difficult process, because when you don’t have confidence, you don’t get goals, you don’t get assists and good performances.
“I know what I can improve. I know what I represent. When I’m better, I’ll give everyone else a lot of peace of mind. I know my responsibility, I want to improve as quickly as possible.”
The top six nations in CONMEBOL qualifying will head straight to the 2026 World Cup.
Although the 24-year-old forward admits that club fixtures are much different from international competitions, he is determined to get his team out of the slump.
“It’s completely different [than playing for Real Madrid],” VinÃcius said. “Games in Europe are different, the ball gets from one side [of the pitch] to the other faster… We have to know how to adapt, so that everyone plays better, so that we can win games.”
He added: “We know the situation we’re in, we want to get Brazil out of this situation at any cost, we all have to go home now and start thinking about what we can do to get back to playing well. We cannot come here, lose these points and play the way we did. It is a difficult time, we must take on board all the criticism and return as quickly as possible to put Brazil on top.”
Dorival takes responsibility
Brazil manager Dorival Junior took responsibility for his team’s defeat.
“You’re fighting for your best and it doesn’t always happen,” Dorival said. “I could feel it. Not just with VinÃ. The way the first half went, we were missing a lot, I’m responsible for that.”
“I don’t want to penalise any player, but we have to work and understand that we need more to reach the level we all want… From the moment we conceded the goal, we lost ourselves. Everything that was being built, until the end of the first half, we left and gave up. It was the worst half since we’ve been here.”
Brazil will next face at Chile on October 11.
