Actions and (a few) words - delight for Vini
Mon 11 January 2021, 16:35|
Tottenham Hotspur
They say actions speak louder than words - but a few words of English from Carlos Vinicius were centre of attention after his hat-trick to see us home safely against Marine in the FA Cup on Sunday.
The Brazilian hitman marked his first appearance in the FA Cup with a 13-minute treble in the first half of our fairytale third round tie against the team from Crosby, Merseyside, who currently reside 161 places below us in the football pyramid in Northern Premier League Division One North West.
We ran out 5-0 winners and, clutching the matchball, ‘Vini’, who joined us on loan from Benfica in October, tried his first interview in English for Spurs TV.
“I’m very happy. Huge hat-trick. Come on you Spurs!” he beamed, a short but sweet turn in front of the camera.
Lucas was next to join us pitchside. “How was Vini’s interview?” he asked and, told that his good friend had managed a few words, added: “Yes, he’s improving.”
Even Jose Mourinho wanted to know how it went. Asked about the performance, he replied: “Only with one condition... I want to watch the interview with Vinicius speaking English. I want to understand the quality of his teacher, Lucas Moura.” Told he’d managed a solid 10 words, Jose added: “Okay, next time. That’s a start.”
After a couple of close-range finishes, Carlos completed his first Spurs hat-trick with a lovely, instinctive lob over Bayleigh Passant in the home goal. Lucas Moura hit the top corner with a free-kick for 4-0 at half-time and icing on the cake came via Alfie Devine, who became our youngest player and goalscorer (16 years, 163 days) after coming on for the second half.
Jose said: “It’s good for Carlos, and the third goal really is an amazing goal. The other two are what I call striker’s goals, easy goals but you have to be there to make it easy.”
Lucas added: “I’m very happy for him, I always say that he’s such a good guy, very humble, and he deserves this. He works hard every day and we spoke before the game, I said he would score a hat-trick, and that’s it! I hope he keeps scoring because we need him.”
