Despite the behaviour of certain Atletico Madrid fans, Real Madrid prevailed in the Madrid derby.
Real Madrid was portrayed as the nice people on Sunday's derby game versus Atletico, which happens infrequently.
With a 2-1 triumph, Carlo Ancelotti's Los Blancos left the Civitas Metropolitano with little doubt that they were the better team on the day.
Strangely, for a game of this calibre, the racism controversy in Spanish football once again overshadowed the actual football, which was virtually a sideshow.
Pedro Bravo, an agent who participates on the Spanish football show El Chiringuito, earned notice through no fault of his own after making a racially inappropriate statement on television..
Bravo advised the Brazilian to "respect your colleagues and quit playing the monkey" in reference to Vinicius' innocent propensity to dance around the goal, comments that, naturally, sparked ire from the entire football community.
The outpouring of support for Vinicius in the wake of Bravo's absurd outburst was heartening to witness. Many of his international teammates, including Brazilian legend Pele, sent him encouraging notes encouraging him to continue dancing.
Vinicius published a statement promising to continue dancing, while earlier on Sunday, Arsenal player Gabriel Jesus devoted a similar celebration to his teammate.
The meaningless discussion about whether or not the celebration is disrespectful should have ended there, which it obviously isn't, but sadly it didn't.
Before the game began, hundreds of Atletico 'ultras' lined up to enter the stadium while hurling insults towards Vinicius in their chants. The scenes went viral on social media thanks to hundreds of photos and videos.
The fact that few people would have been greatly surprised makes such chants all the more depressing. The Atletico ultras have a track record of defaming their team. According to Marca, 30 of them were detained in Bruges in 2018 for making Nazi gestures, and as recently as April, they were subjected to a partial stadium closure in the Champions League as a result of similar fan behaviour versus Manchester City.
After fighting with supporters of Deportivo La Coruna resulted in the death of "Jimmy," a member of the latter team's Riazor Blues, who was attacked and dragged into the Manzanares river, Frente Atletico was banned from the club's former stadium, the Vicente Calderon, in 2014.
Although they were banned, the group's sentiments persisted, and Sunday's pre-match images served as a sobering reminder of Atletico's inability as a club to root out far-right ideologies among its supporters.
Vinicius, however, is a courageous young man who wasn't about to repress his personality and mentality in order to please some Neanderthals, which is a blessing.
Atletico supporters loudly jeered Vinicius' initial touch, as the pre-game chants had hinted at. The Brazilian, however, amusingly answered with the most elaborate six-yard pass he could think of, dragging the ball back with his right foot before flicking it back down the flank to Ferland Mendy in one fluid motion. In essence, that was the closest thing he could have done to dancing at the time.
But it didn't take him long to start dancing seriously. Vinicius wasn't even involved in the goal; instead, Rodrygo finished off Aurelien Tchouameni's exquisite pass with aplomb. The scorer then sprinted towards the corner flag and started to flaunt his skills.
Atletico fans threw things onto the playing surface near the ecstatic Madrid players, most of whom welcomed the former Flamengo sensation more enthusiastically than they did Rodrygo. Vinicius arrived on the scene shortly and began gyrating with even more vigour.
But just after the halfway point, Vinicius' effect became clear. The winger sprinted past Marcos Llorente and towards the left side of the penalty area before attempting to score. Federico Valverde, who ploughed in from close range, received it favourably.
Although Vinicius continued to play his natural game, taunting Llorente on several occasions, and even attempting an audacious rainbow flick over Axel Witsel, which undoubtedly enraged the home crowd, Atletico players treated him roughly, perhaps as you might have expected given that he was their biggest attacking threat without Karim Benzema.
Atletico Madrid spent a large portion of the second half on top as they attempted to mount a comeback, so he ultimately never quite got the moment of personal jubilation many might have imagined he'd have.
Mario Hermoso's late goal, however, was simply a consolation as Atletico failed to rise to the occasion and Madrid continued their strong start to their title defence by holding firm.
But the focus of the post-game discussion won't be the action or even the outcome. Atletico's response to those incidents will be remembered more than how they ultimately feel about this setback because they are what this game will be remembered for.