\u2060Vinicius Jr scored a sublime second-half winner as Real Madrid beat Benfica 1-0 in their Champions League playoff first leg, a night overshadowed by the Brazilian accusing Benfica\u2019s Gianluca Prestianni \u2060of directing a racist slur at him.<\/p>\n
The alleged incident occurred moments after Vinicius had curled Real ahead, five minutes into the second half at the Estadio da Luz on Tuesday, before referee Francois Letexier halted the match for 11 minutes under FIFA\u2019s \u2060antiracism protocol.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Television pictures showed the Argentinian winger covering his mouth with his shirt before making a comment that Vinicius and nearby teammates interpreted as a racial slur against the 25-year-old, who has repeatedly suffered racism in Spain during matches.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unbelievable that, with dozens of cameras in the stadium, that none could have caught [Prestianni\u2019s] racial slur, but if you cover your mouth \u200cto say something, that says a lot,\u201d Real captain Federico Valverde told Movistar Plus.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to my teammates who were close, they heard something very ugly. Many people have been fighting against racism in football; Vinicius is one of them. I\u2019m proud of him and his great game.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press news agency reported that television cameras picked up Vinicius Junior telling the referee that Prestianni had called him a \u201cmonkey\u201d.<\/p>\n Benfica began the game on the front foot, but the visitors gradually assumed control while the hosts appeared content to counterattack, with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois producing a stunning one-handed save to keep out a 25th-minute strike from Fredrik Aursnes.<\/p>\n Real finished the first half strongly, and only goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin\u2019s brilliance kept \u2060the score goalless at the break as he produced stunning saves to deny Kylian \u2060Mbappe and Arda Guler.<\/p>\n The breakthrough came five minutes after the restart. Mbappe burst forward and fed Vinicius on the left. The Brazilian cut diagonally towards the box, shifted inside and unleashed an unstoppable curling shot into the far top corner.<\/p>\n Vinicius celebrated by dancing with the corner flag and \u2060was booked by Letexier for excessive celebration.<\/p>\n As the forward argued with the referee, he became involved in a heated exchange with Prestianni, with Vinicius and several teammates suddenly running towards \u2060the referee.<\/p>\n Letexier crossed his arms in front of his face to activate \u2060FIFA\u2019s protocol and stopped the match. Real\u2019s players threatened to leave the pitch as tensions flared, before play eventually resumed 11 minutes later.<\/p>\n The atmosphere turned hostile, with Vinicius loudly booed whenever he touched the ball, and the broadcast camera appeared to show an outraged Mbappe calling Prestianni \u201ca bloody racist\u201d to \u200chis face several times after the game resumed.<\/p>\n Tempers flared again in the 85th minute, when Vinicius fouled Richard Rios. Benfica manager Jose Mourinho stormed towards the fourth official, demanding a second booking for the Brazilian, but was himself cautioned \u200cfor \u200chis protests.<\/p>\n An incensed Mourinho continued remonstrating, and was promptly shown a second yellow card.<\/p>\n Benfica pushed late on, but managed only three shots on target as Real secured a slender advantage to take back to Madrid for the return leg.<\/p>\n Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa decried the alleged abuse against Vinicius Junior.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone can see what happened with Prestianni,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Arbeloa added, \u201cWe have to fight against this type of attitude\u201d, and, \u201cIf we don\u2019t respect each other, then it is a problem\u201d.<\/p>\n Madrid right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold told Amazon Prime that what allegedly happened during the match was a \u201cdisgrace to football\u201d and overshadowed the performance and an amazing goal.<\/p>\n \u201cVini has been subject to this a few times throughout his career,\u201d he said. \u201cTo ruin a night like this for our team is a disgrace. There is no place for it in football or society. It is disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n Mourinho criticised Vinicius Junior\u2019s celebration and defended the club \u2013 if not Prestianni \u2013 against allegations of racism.<\/p>\n \u201cWords were exchanged. I want to be independent. I don\u2019t want to say I believe in Prestianni or believe in Vinicius,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI told [Vinicius], \u2018When you score a goal like that, you just celebrate in a respectful way\u2019. When he was arguing about racism, I told him the biggest person [Eusebio] in the history of this club was Black. This club, the last thing that it is, is racist.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere on Tuesday, Dutch midfielder Noa Lang scored a brace as Galatasaray thumped Juventus 5-2 in a pulsating contest in Istanbul in the first leg of a Champions League playoff.<\/p>\n In a nerve-shredding atmosphere, Luciano Spalletti\u2019s Juventus actually led 2-1 at half-time after Teun Koopmeiners replied to Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Sara\u2019s opener with a brace of his own.<\/p>\n But Colombian full-back Juan Cabal was dismissed for two bookings in a calamitous second half for the Italian side, as Lang\u2019s brace and goals from Davinson Sanchez and Sacha Boey sunk Juventus.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Champions League holders Paris Saint Germain overcame a horror start and a two-goal deficit to beat 10-man Monaco 3-2 away in the first leg of their knockout round \u2060playoff tie.<\/p>\n Desire Doue came off the bench to engineer an impressive turnaround for PSG, who conceded a goal in the opening minute and were 2-0 down after 18 minutes as Folarin Balogun grabbed a double for \u2060the hosts.<\/p>\n The 20-year-old Doue replaced Ballon d\u2019Or winner Ousmane Dembele, who went off injured after 27 minutes, and proved decisive for the visitors as he struck two superb goals, as well as setting one up for Achraf Hakimi.<\/p>\n In Germany, striker Serhou Guirassy \u2060scored one \u2060goal and created another as hosts Borussia Dortmund claimed a \u20602-0 victory over Italian visitors Atalanta in the first leg \u2060of their Champions League playoff tie on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2060Vinicius Jr scored a sublime second-half winner as Real Madrid beat Benfica 1-0 in their Champions League playoff first leg, a night overshadowed by the Brazilian accusing Benfica\u2019s Gianluca Prestianni \u2060of directing a racist slur at him. The alleged incident occurred moments after Vinicius had curled Real ahead, five minutes into the second half at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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