Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr will miss his side’s Champions League clash at Liverpool on Wednesday after sustaining a leg muscle injury in their 3-0 LaLiga win at Leganes at the weekend, the Spanish club said on Monday.

Sources close to the player told Reuters that Vinicius is expected to be sidelined from three to four weeks. It means he could miss up to seven games in all competitions before the winter break, including against Girona and Athletic Bilbao in LaLiga and a Champions League visit to Atalanta.

“Following tests carried out today on our player Vini Jr by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with an injury to the biceps femoris in his left leg. Pending evolution,” Real said in a statement.

Vinicius is the latest to join the club’s lengthy injury list which includes key players like Rodrygo, Eder Militao, Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vazquez, Aurelien Tchouameni and David Alaba.

Real are second in the LaLiga standings on 30 points, four behind Barcelona who drew 2-2 with Celta Vigo on Saturday.

However, after two losses in their last three games in the Champions League, Carlo Ancelotti’s side could be in trouble with a bad result at Anfield. They are 18th in the 36-team table with six points from four games.

Second-half goals from Ademola Lookman and Nicolo Zaniolo earned Atalanta a 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League on Wednesday and the Italian side are still yet to concede a goal in this season’s competition.

The opener came in the 51st minute when Ademola Lookman tapped in a cross from Charles De Ketelaere and, with the home side struggling to find a way through, Zaniolo struck the decisive second two minutes from time.

The defeat ended Stuttgart’s impressive home record of not losing a game in any competition for more than a year, while Atalanta continued their excellent form, unbeaten in their last eight matches.

Atalanta moved up to ninth in the standings on eight points, with Stuttgart dropping out of the playoff zone as they slipped to 27th with four points.

“We came here with ambition but from there to winning is a long way off,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini told Sky Sport.

“These are difficult pitches, Stuttgart had won in Turin against Juventus. It is the way this victory came that gives us confidence. We won with personality.”

The visitors had the bulk of the possession in the opening half but it was Stuttgart who looked the more likely to score, with Anthony Rouault heading over from inside the six-yard box.

Stuttgart’s best chance of the half came right at the end when Chris Fuhrich’s pass set Deniz Undav up for a shot from close range but he hit the side netting.

Atalanta sent De Ketelaere on at the start of the second half and it was his silky skills which led to the breakthrough as he went past two defenders and his ball across the goal gave Lookman the easiest of tap-ins.

Stuttgart, who had beaten Juventus 1-0 in their last Champions League game, could not find a way past the Atalanta defence, and the visitors wrapped up the win near the end.

Substitute Zaniolo pounced on sloppy Stuttgart defending and in a one-on-one with the keeper he coolly slipped the ball past Alexander Nubel.

Atalanta and Inter Milan are the only two sides in the competition who have not conceded a goal after four games, and Gasperini’s side have put themselves in an excellent position at the halfway stage of the league phase.

“In all the games we have played we have shown solidity and we haven’t suffered much,” Gasperini said.

“We were able to have a good defensive phase and we built the points on that.”

-Reuters

 Liverpool’s Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as they maintained their perfect Champions League campaign with a barnstorming second-half display in a 4-0 victory over Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield on Tuesday.

Arne Slot’s men, who top the Premier League table, provisionally lead the standings of Europe’s elite club competition with their fourth win in four matches, with Aston Villa, the only other team with a 100% record, playing Club Brugge in their fourth game on Wednesday.

Leverkusen’s loss spoiled the return of manager and former Liverpool hero Alonso, who hoisted the Champions League trophy with the Reds in 2005.

“It’s painful the result more than the performance, probably,” Alonso told Amazon Prime. “But this is the Champions League, this is the highest level, and today it wasn’t enough for us.

“I tried to separate the game and the pain from the result from the nice feelings to come back. I’m really happy and thankful for that reception,” he added on the warm greeting he received from the Anfield crowd.

Alonso was heavily touted as a replacement for former Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp before ruling himself out of the running. Slot, however, has proved a worthy replacement for Klopp, and his halftime team talk certainly did the trick as they went on to record their 14th win in 16 games this season.

“We took more risk (in the second half),” Slot told Amazon Prime. “They overloaded the midfield a lot and we adjusted at halftime and took the risk to play one v one all over.”

The Dutchman played Diaz as a centre forward and it proved to be a masterful move, as the Colombian broke the deadlock of what had been a sluggish affair in stunning fashion in the 61st minute, timing his run onto Curtis Jones’ pinpoint pass through the heart of Leverkusen’s defence before lifting the ball over keeper Lukas Hradecky.

Cody Gakpo doubled the Reds’ lead two minutes later when he dived to head Mohamed Salah’s cross home at the back post. The goal was initially ruled offside but the decision was overturned by VAR.

Diaz netted his second in the 83rd minute when he latched onto a cross from Salah, and then held off a challenge before slotting past Hradecky.

He completed his hat-trick with a tap-in from close range in stoppage time after Darwin Nunez’s shot was blocked in a statement victory for the six-times winners of Europe’s top competition against the Bundesliga champions who lost just once in all competitions last season.

“We have top quality players all over the pitch, but actually, I really enjoyed playing in that position today, and wherever I’m playing on the pitch, I’m going to work hard, and I hope I can help the team,” said Diaz, adding he planned to go and search for the match ball.

Both teams were lacking quality in the final third in a dull first half. Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong had an effort shortly before halftime chalked off for a handball in the build-up, while Gakpo squandered a terrific chance for Liverpool, shooting straight at Hradecky after working the ball up the left side.

Alonso’s Leverkusen are provisionally 11th in the Champions League standings with a pair of wins, a draw and a loss.

The 42-year-old Alonso played 210 games for Liverpool in a five-year spell from 2004, and was part of the side that completed a miraculous comeback in their Champions League final win over AC Milan in Istanbul.

-Reuters