Real Madrid’s Rodrygo: ‘I was 100% sure we’d be in the final and it all worked out’

Rodrygo played probably the game of his life when Real Madrid eliminated Manchester City in their Champions League semi-final. His two dramatic late goals forced extra time at the Bernabéu when all hope appeared lost, but the Brazilian still ended the night a loser as well as a winner.

Rodrygo had made a bet with his father, the former footballer Eric Goes, that he would score a hat-trick. When Madrid won the penalty that sealed a 3-1 victory on the night and a place in Saturday’s final against Liverpool, surely he was tempted to ask Karim Benzema to stand aside?

“There wasn’t even a conversation on who should take the penalty,” Rodrygo says with a laugh. “He is the club’s penalty taker, one of the most experienced players we have. He knew what to do, went there and gave us the spot in the final.”

In any case the gamble with his dad was nothing out of the ordinary. “These bets are a regular thing between me and my father,” he says. “It’s one of our inside jokes since I was little. It motivates me.”

When Rodrygo came on against City in the 68th minute, replacing Toni Kroos, his chances of scoring two goals, never mind three, appeared slim. Five minutes later Riyad Mahrez’s strike seemed to have put the game beyond Madrid but the fightback extended their run of epic Champions League recoveries. First had come Paris Saint-Germain, then the quarter-final against Chelsea, when Rodrygo was brought on in the 78th minute and scored the 80th-minute goal that forced extra time.

“We are organised, we train well and we fight to win every time,” Rodrygo says. “We were thinking that we had a shot of going to the final until the last minute and it paid off. It was hard, complicated, but we had time and the conditions to change the