In Tuesday’s Champions League playoff match between Real Madrid and Benfica Lisbon, play was suspended for 10 minutes after one of Real’s stars, a dark-skinned Brazilian. Negligence on the part of the Benfica player.
The incident occurred at the beginning of the second half, just after Vinicius scored the only goal of the match with a beautiful shot into the “nine”.
The game took place at the Benfica stadium. After scoring, Vinicius ran to the corner of the field, turned to face the stands and celebrated the goal, vigorously swaying his hips at the corner flag. Then, surrounded by his partners, he returned to his half of the field.
Moments later, Vinicius turned to the referee, French referee Francois Letexier, and claimed that Benfica’s Argentine winger, 20-year-old Gianluca Prestianni, had insulted him.
FIFA’s anti-racism protocol After ten minutes of negotiations, play resumed.
The video shows Prestianni pulling his shirt over his face and saying something while looking at Vinicius. According to him, Prestianni repeated it five times and was heard by him and other players. The speech could have come in reference to a primate-related utterance that refers to the animal the White House recently portrayed Barack Obama as.
“I have a lot of respect for Benfica and its coach [Jose Mourinho], he is one of the best in history, but in my opinion this player no longer deserves to play in the Champions League. You can’t have someone behaving like this in Europe’s premier tournament,” Mbappe said.
“Let’s see what happens next. Let UEFA decide, they always try to do something. It’s a serious fallout. Ok, and I hope they will intervene,” the Frenchman added.
Gianluca Prestiani has not yet commented on the incident.
Benfica coach Jose Mourinho’s comments sparked outrage from football experts and some players. Hinted that Vinicius celebrated the goal too provocatively.
Mourinho himself was suspended at the end of the match for protesting too vigorously against the referee’s decision not to show Vinicius a second yellow card for a flagrant foul during a Benfica attack. Different versions. But I don’t believe one or the other. I want to remain independent,” Mourinho said.
Asked if Vinicius provoked the Benfica fans, the Portuguese coach said, “Yes, I think so.” But unfortunately, scoring that impressive goal was not enough for him. ‘When you score a goal like that, you have to celebrate with respect,’ Mourinho said. – “I told Vinicius: when you score a goal like that, just celebrate and come back. – Racism is the last thing you can accuse this club of.” Images
Mourinho’s words were condemned by former Real Madrid and Netherlands player Clarence Zedorf, former England player Theo Walcott and current Real Madrid and England player Trent Alexander – Arnaud4, among others. Hasn’t cooled down from the emotion yet. He made a big mistake trying to justify racist neglect,” Zedorf said on Amazon Prime. – Basically in the in says: if Vinicius provokes you, it’s OK to behave in a racist way. I think he’s completely wrong.