Vinicius Sent Off for Hair-Pull as Mourinho Boycotts Presser

Real Madrid took all three points against Villarreal on Saturday, but the story of the night had nothing to do with the scoreline. Yan Diomandé's goal was enough for a 1-0 win, keeping Jose Mourinho's side six points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona and provisionally third. The real drama came from Vinicius Junior, sent off for pulling an opponent's hair in a VAR review that erased his own goal and left Madrid to see out the final stages with ten men.

A Drab Night Turns on One Substitution

Mourinho started with Vinicius on the bench, a decision that followed the winger's trips to Australia and India with Brazil during the international break and his out-of-form recent weeks. Kylian Mbappé led the line instead, fit to start after a knee problem picked up on international duty with France. He was Madrid's most dangerous player in the first half, striking the post from Álvaro Carreras's lay-off and later forcing a strong save out of Villarreal goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. There were whistles for Mbappé from sections of the crowd — some fans view his recent form as unprofessional — mixed with applause from others, even as he remains a candidate for this month's Ballon d'Or.

Villarreal settled into the game after that early Mbappé chance and restricted Madrid's opportunities for a stretch, turning a tight contest into what the Guardian described as a drab opening half. Madrid were defensively solid, giving Villarreal little of note, but struggled to create much themselves until the second half turned the match on its head.

The VAR Review That Changed the Night

Vinicius replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold shortly before Diomandé put Madrid ahead, and for a short while it looked like his introduction had been a masterstroke. The Brazilian wheeled away in celebration after scoring himself — the second goal of the game — only for referee Isidro Diaz de Mera to be called over to the pitchside monitor. The review went back through the build-up, and it found Vinicius pulling the hair of Villarreal's Nathan Saliba as the pair sprinted down the field. The goal was chalked off, and the referee reached for a straight red card for violent conduct.

Final score

Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal

Goalscorer

Yan Diomandé

Vinicius sent off

73rd minute

Time on pitch

20 minutes

Points behind Barcelona

6

Next fixture at risk

El Clásico, 25 October

Vinicius had only been on the pitch for around 20 minutes. He reacted furiously, screaming at Diaz de Mera as teammates moved in to calm him down. In his own match report, the referee wrote that Vinicius, after being shown the card, "protested my decision, raising his voice, toward where I was standing in an aggressive manner, and being held ba[ck]" by those same teammates. Villarreal defender Juan Foyth offered a more measured read on the incident afterwards: "I don't think he meant to hurt anyone but it is a red card."

Mourinho's Boycott and a Night of Yellow Cards

Mourinho had been midway through running onto the pitch to join the celebrations for what he thought was a second Madrid goal when the review began — and the swing from celebration to fury was immediate once the card came out. He had already picked up a yellow card of his own during the game and had to be held back by members of his coaching staff on several occasions as decisions went against his team.

Mourinho's anger didn't end with the final whistle. He skipped the customary post-match press conference entirely — reportedly because he feared that anything he said publicly about the sending-off would result in his own suspension. It left Tchouaméni to field the inevitable questions about the officiating, with the midfielder's quote above summing up the mood in the Madrid camp: bewildered by the decision, but relieved to have taken the points regardless.

Vinicius addressed the incident himself later that evening, posting on Instagram: "Sorry to my team and my fans." Notably, he did not apologise to Saliba, the player whose hair he had pulled.

What It Means for Madrid's Run-In

The red card leaves Vinicius facing the prospect of a suspension on top of the automatic one-match ban that follows a dismissal, and that timing could not be worse for Real Madrid. The fixture directly in his sights is El Clásico against Barcelona on 25 October — a match Madrid will want their biggest attacking name available for, given they already sit six points behind their rivals at the top of the table. Any extended ban handed down for the hair-pulling incident, on top of the standard suspension, would stretch his absence further into Madrid's calendar.

For now, Madrid have the three points and a provisional third place in La Liga, with Diomandé's goal standing as the difference. But the manner of the win — a makeshift front line grinding out a 1-0 victory with ten men for the last 17 minutes — and the fallout around Vinicius and Mourinho mean this result will be remembered for what happened after the whistle as much as during the 90 minutes themselves. Madrid now have to navigate their next fixtures without one of their most important attacking options, waiting to learn exactly how long that absence will last.