His goals, his evolution, Luis Enrique: Vitinha tells all
Enjoying a remarkable season, as much for his influence on his team's playing style as his spectacular goals, Portuguese midfielder Vitinha reveals all to PSG TV in a long and exclusive interview!
Vitinha, congratulations! You are having a great season and scoring in big matches. Did you know had this in you?
In fact, I don't think being a goal scorer is something that comes naturally to me, but let's just say that I had the potential to become one. I know I have the ability because I was already scoring goals in training. But in a match, it's different. In any case, I was able to show my ability to score and I'm happy to be able to do that this year. Now the challenge is to keep going. It's difficult, but I'm going to give it my all until the end of the season and then again next year.
We can see that it’s also something that Luis Enrique asks from you and all the players, the ability to do everything…
Exactly. What he's pushing me to do is incredible for me personally because I'm doing things that I didn't know I was capable of doing and that I can actually do quite well. It's incredible for me and for all the players to develop like that. We're better individually and as a team.
The perfect example of what he asks of you was the game against Marseille, at the Vélodrome, where the team was a man down. You scored, but you also did so much more. Your role is also to set the rhythm for the team’s play and stay in control…
That's correct, exactly. One of the qualities that a player in this position has to have is the ability to control the tempo: deciding whether to speed up or slow down, whether to go left or right, forwards or backwards. That's what I like to do, and that's what a player in this position has to do. It’s not enough to simply know it or to say it; I have to show it in my actions, too.
In this match, it was incredible the way we reacted, the way we showed that we were more than just an idea, that we were a real team. When we have to defend, we all defend and that's what we want to do. I think the fans like that, too, because that's what makes a great team, and we knew it was an important game for them as well.
Other important matches were obviously the games against Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In the first leg, you scored an amazing goal and showed all that emotion in the celebration…
Oh, yes, there were a lot of emotions! There were emotions against Marseille as well, but I was very tired in that game. This time, it was crazy, and that goal made us feel that we could do it.
You gave us that feeling in the return leg as well, in Barcelona, in a match that Paris fans will never forget…
Do you remember my celebration? You can tell how extremely tense it was, the pressure! I'm going to remember that moment for the rest of my life because it was an important goal at an important time. That goal that gave us the lead... If I could frame that goal in my house... It's a goal that will stay with me, with the club and, I think, with the fans. It was incredible... I'll never forget that goal.