Benfica and Mourinho slammed for ‘disgraceful’ reaction to Vinicius Jr’s racism allegation

A huge night of controversy in Lisbon

Vinicius' goal gave Real Madrid a 1-0 first-leg lead in their Champions League knockout play-off against Benfica, but the night was dominated by an alleged incident involving Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni.

Vinicius accused Prestianni of racist abuse as the Benfica man covered his mouth before the restart following the goal, meaning the referee halted the game for 10 minutes as Real refused to continue playing.

Speaking afterwards, former Real boss and now Benfica manager Mourinho seemingly justified the abuse Vinicius received from the crowd after scoring, and claimed he wouldn't take a side on the Prestianni incident, despite saying he "saw two completely different things."

Mourinho, who was also sent off, said: “It should be the crazy moment of the game, an amazing goal. These talents are able to do these beautiful things, but unfortunately not just happy to score astonishing goal.

“When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way. I believe so (he incited the crowd). Then the words that they exchange Gianluca Prestianni with Vinicius I want to be an independent.

“I saw two completely different things. I want to be independent, and I don’t comment about it. I told him [Vinicius Jr] exactly that. I told him, ‘when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back’.

“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. If in his mind there was something in relation to that, this in Benfica.

“They [Vinicius Jr and Prestianni] told me different things. But I don’t believe in one or another. I want to be an independent. There is something wrong as it happens in every stadium where Vinicius plays, always something happens…”

Speaking on Amazon Prime, Wayne Rooney commented on Mourinho's remarks, saying: “It’s very unfair what he’s saying about Vinicius.”

And in a social media post early on Wednesday morning, Benfica themselves posted a video of the alleged incident, with the caption: "As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard."

Vinicius later wrote on Instagram: “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to cover their mouths with their shirts to show their weakness.

“But they also count on the protection of others who, in theory, have the obligation to punish them.

“Nothing that happened here was new in my life or in that of my family. They gave me a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why. On the other hand, it was a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.

“I don’t like being in situations like this, especially after a big win when the headlines should be about Real Madrid, but it’s necessary.”