Real Madrid secured a convincing 3-0 win over Manchester City on Wednesday night, taking a big step towards reaching the Champions League quarter-finals thanks to a hat-trick from Federico Valverde.
However, the lead could have been even bigger ahead of the return leg at the Etihad next week.
Real Madrid spent most of the second half trying to stop Manchester City’s attacks, but they still managed to risk counterattacks. Around ten minutes into the second half, Vinicius Junior was brought down in the area by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The Brazilian, in the absence of several of the team’s stars, took the penalty. He shot low to the right, but Donnarumma read the direction correctly and saved the shot, keeping City’s hopes alive in this encounter.
This could be an indication of Vinícius’ poor penalty statistics. According to Mundo Deportivo, this was the fourth penalty missed in 14 attempts for Real Madrid.
This puts his conversion rate at 71.43%, which is the lowest for a regular penalty taker at Real Madrid in the 21st century, considering only players who have taken at least 10 penalties.
Based on this criterion, only seven players, including Vinicius, have taken at least 10 penalties for Real Madrid in the last 26 years.
The best record is held by Sergio Ramos with a conversion percentage of 95.65%, having missed only one of 23 penalties.
Behind him are Karim Benzema with 27 goals from 32 penalties (86.49%) and Cristiano Ronaldo with 79 goals from 90 attempts (87.78%).
Meanwhile, Kylian Mbappe, who is Real Madrid’s leading penalty taker this season when in form, has also missed four penalties, but from 23 attempts, having a conversion rate of 82.61%.