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Vinícius Júnior Reaches 100 Goals with Real Madrid

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's 5th goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Salzburg at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's 5th goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Salzburg at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
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Vinícius Júnior Reaches 100 Goals with Real Madrid

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's 5th goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Salzburg at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's 5th goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Salzburg at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Vinícius Júnior reached 100 goals with Real Madrid in the team's 5-1 victory over Salzburg on Wednesday to secure a playoff spot after a slow start in the Champions League.
Vinícius scored his 99th and 100th goals, according to UEFA, moving him into third place in the top Brazilian scorers in the Champions League with 28 goals in the competition. Neymar leads the way with 43, with Kaká second on 30.
Madrid said Vinícius has 101 goals for the club, with Spanish media saying the discrepancy dates back to a Spanish league goal that many considered an own-goal and should not count for the Brazil forward.
“Sometimes it’s pure instinct, sometimes there’s a little more time so I can take a glance and see things which help, like where the goalkeeper is," Vinícius said. "Goals are making me a better player. Early on here (at Real Madrid), I didn’t score so many, but now I might play the odd bad game but still score twice, and that’s a good habit to have.”
Madrid, the defending champion and record 15-time European champion, had lost three of its first six matches in the new format of the Champions League and was at risk of elimination.
“I truly think that tonight we produced pretty much the complete performance, because we also turned it on in the first half," said Vinícius, who was named the man of the match. "But we really need to keep seeking our absolute best form so that we can keep on scoring goals and defending better as a team.”
The victory moved Madrid to 16th place in the 36-team league phase of the competition.
“We have some things to fix but we have good momentum,” The Associated Press quoted Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti as saying. “The goal tonight was to win and play well. We started a bit soft but were able to improve.”
Rodrygo also scored twice for Madrid, and Kylian Mbappé added another goal after a blunder by Salzburg goalkeeper Janis Blaswich.
Rodrygo has scored five goals in his last four matches, while Vinícius has three in his last two games. Mbappé also has five goals in his last four matches.
Jude Bellingham set up one of Vinícius' goals with a neat back-heel flick. The England player left the match in the 64th minute with a back issue but Ancelotti downplayed the injury.
Madrid next visits French club Brest.

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Keys Upsets Swiatek, to Face Sabalenka in Saturday’s Final

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
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Keys Upsets Swiatek, to Face Sabalenka in Saturday’s Final

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

When Madison Keys finally finished off her 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (10-8) upset of No. 2 Iga Swiatek in a high-intensity, high-quality Australian Open semifinal on Thursday night, saving a match point along the way, the 29-year-old American crouched on the court and placed a hand on her white hat.

She had a hard time believing it all. The comeback. What Keys called an “extra dramatic finish.” The victory over five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who'd been on the most dominant run at Melbourne Park in a dozen years. And now the chance to play in her second Grand Slam final, a long wait after being the 2017 US Open runner-up.

“I’m still trying to catch up to everything that’s happening,” said the 19th-seeded Keys, who will face No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, for the trophy Saturday. “I felt like I was just fighting to stay in it. ... It was so up and down and so many big points."

Just to be sure, Keys asked whether Swiatek was, indeed, one point from victory. Yes, Madison, she was, while serving at 6-5, 40-30, but missed a backhand into the net, then eventually getting broken by double-faulting, sending the contest to a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker.

“I felt like I blacked out there at some point,” Keys said, “and was out there running around.”

Whatever she was doing, it worked. Keys claimed more games in the semifinal than the 14 total that Swiatek dropped in her five previous matches over the past two weeks.

Sabalenka beat good friend Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 earlier Thursday. Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, can become the first woman since 1999 to complete a threepeat.

"If she plays like this,” the 11th-seeded Badosa said, “I mean, we can already give her the trophy.”

Keys might have something to say about that.

Still, Sabalenka won her first major trophy at Melbourne Park in 2023, and she since has added two more — in Australia a year ago and at the US Open last September.
The last woman to reach three finals in a row at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament was Serena Williams, who won two from 2015-17. Martina Hingis was the most recent woman with a threepeat, doing it from 1997-1999.
“I have goosebumps. I’m so proud of myself,” Sabalenka said.
Swiatek had not lost a single service game since the first round, but was broken three times by Keys in the first set alone and eight times in all.
That included each of Swiatek’s first two times serving, making clear right from the get-go this would not be her usual sort of day. And while Swiatek did eke out the opening set, she was overwhelmed in the second, trailing 5-0 before getting a game.
This was the big-hitting Keys at her very best. She turns 30 next month and, at the suggestion of her coach, former player Bjorn Fratangelo — who also happens to be her husband — decided to try a new racket this season, an effort both to help her with generating easy power but also to relieve some strain on her right shoulder.
It’s certainly paid immediate dividends. Keys is now on an 11-match winning streak, including taking the title at a tuneup event in Adelaide.
She was good enough to get through this one, which was as tight as can be down the stretch.
“At the end, I feel like we were both kind of battling some nerves. ... It just became who can get that final point and who can be a little bit better than the other one,” Keys said. “And I’m happy it was me.”