In the first leg of the UEFA Champions League play-offs, Real Madrid takes a deserved 1-0 lead to the Bernabéu for next week’s playoff second leg.
Real Madrid learned from their early defeats that dropped them from the Champions League top eight into these knockout round playoffs. This time, they came well prepared for the game.
It was a night where we saw extreme highs and lows. But nothing was greater than Vinicius Junior’s 50th-minute goal. After that, the play was stopped for 10 minutes. It was a time when Vinicius accused Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him. Right after that, the referee invoked UEFA’s anti-racism protocol.
Referee Francois Letexier made the crossed arms gesture to signal racist abuse after a brief conversation with Vinicius. He put Real Madrid 1-0 up in Estadio da Luz. After that, Vinicius was booked for excessive celebration. After an interaction with Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni, Vinicius ran over to the referee and reported the incident.
After that, Vinicius walked off the field, and his teammates followed suit. But the play resumed in the 60th minute.
After that incident, the match was played to its conclusion, and Real Madrid won by 1-0.
After finishing the match, Vinicius released a statement through his Instagram channel. He condemned the incident. Have a look at what he said about the incident.
“Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are. But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team’s life.”
“I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why. On the other hand, it was just a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.”
On the other hand, Prestianni denied racially abusing Vinicius Jr. “I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard,” said Prestianni.
“I was never racist with anyone, and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.”
Real Madrid boss Alvaro Arbeloa also spoke about the incident and was firm in his support of Vinícius Jr. “What Vini said is not important. I think we need to fight against racism. It is the most important thing now in football. We support Vini now, of course, and now you have to ask them.”
“Of course, we have to fight against this type of attitude and to focus on football, but first we have to fight against things like that. We have to fight, especially the footballers. If we don’t respect each other, it is difficult.”
