Image Credit: @FabrizioRomano Twitter
Real Madrid got a measure of revenge against S.L. Benfica in the Champions League Knockout Phase Playoffs with a 1-0 victory courtesy of an unbelievable goal by Real Madrid’s number 7, Vinícius Júnior. Unfortunately however, Vini Jr’s winner is not the talking point of the game as the chaos that took place after Vini Jr’s goal is taking all the headlines. Vinícius Júnior received a yellow card, a confrontation between Vini Jr and Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni which led to Vinícius Júnior complaining to the match official and Jose Mourinho receiving back-to-back yellow cards which turned into a red card. All this drama has taken away from what should have been a decent Champions League night for Real Madrid fans and it is supremely unfortunate as well that the main driving force for all this drama is racism.
Why was Vinícius Júnior booked?
In the 50th minute of the Real Madrid v Benfica game, Vinícius Júnior came running down the left flank, cut inside on his stronger foot and scored an absolute wonder goal to put Los Blancos ahead in the game. Vini Jr then proceeded to run to the corner flag to celebrate the goal by dancing at the corner flag. This celebration naturally upset the home fans as it is already upsetting enough that your team has gone 1 goal behind but now the player who scored is dancing in front of you. The Benfica fans naturally jeered and booed Vini Jr to which the Brazilian responded by lightly lifting his shirt to show the fans his name and number on his back. After that the match official, Francois Letexier, booked Vinícius Júnior with a yellow card which was to the surprise of everyone including Vini Jr himself. Football players and fans are aware of match officials being fully in their right to book players who do certain celebrations that the match officials deem “excessive”, the most common examples would be when players take off their shirts or jumping over a fence into the crowd.
The 25-year-old winger did not do anything out of the ordinary, a dancing celebration by the corner flag is something players have done for years and has never been a bookable offense. Dancing celebrations in football is commonly a Brazilian tradition, you could name almost any Brazilian legend in the sport or some current Brazilian players and you would see dancing is a big part of their culture for self-expression. The other celebration of slightly lifting your shirt by the shoulders to properly display your name and number on the back of the shirt is also a very common celebration that very rarely if ever has been a bookable offence. It is still unclear which celebration Vini Jr was booked for however being booked for either seemed very harsh on the Brazilian winger.
What happened between Vinícius and Prestianni?
Following the yellow card received by Vinícius Júnior for his celebrations, the Real Madrid number 7 was seen being confronted by Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni which prompted the Brazilian winger to run to the referee to complain about what he had just heard. It was later revealed that Vini Jr had received racial abuse from the Argentinian winger which has become the major talking point of this game. Kylian Mbappé was seen shouting at Prestianni on the field following the encounter and the French forward later revealed in a post-match interview that he himself heard Gianluca Prestianni call Vinícius Júnior a “monkey” 5 times. It is difficult to prove that Prestianni racially abused Vini Jr and the reason for that is because the Benfica player had covered his mouth with his shirt before confronting the Real Madrid winger which has only added further to the suspensions of the allegation. These kinds of situations are slowly becoming a common theme in regards to Vinícius Júnior which is very sad to say that this is not the first time the Brazilian has been in a situations like this. In the past there has been a reported 16 previous instances where Vini Jr has been racially abused with the most notable ones being when Atlético Madrid and Valencia fans was singing and chanting racist remarks at the Brazilian.
Why was Jose Mourinho booked twice?
Jose Mourinho also managed to make himself part of the drama during the game and after the final whistle blew. The Special One, as he is commonly referred to, received back-to-back yellow cards in the 90th minute of the game for descent because the Portuguese manager was seen angrily shouting at the match official as Jose Mourinho felt the match official’s decisions were biased towards to Real Madrid. With that Jose Mourinho will not be available in the dugout for the 2ng leg fixture between Benfica and Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu however the Benfica manager’s on field dismissal was the not the issue that made headlines. His post-match interview comments regarding the racial abuse allegations is what has really turned heads.
What did Jose Mourinho say?
During the post-match interview Jose Mourinho was asked about the situation regarding Vinícius Júnior and Gianluca Prestianni to which the Benfica manager made comments that shocked everyone as instead of showing sympathy to Vini Jr or at the very least taking a neutral stance until all the evidence is brought to light, Mourinho chose to blame Vinícius Júnior and his celebrations.
Jose Mourinho: “When it happens in so many stadiums, always with the same, there is something wrong”.
“I told Vini: you scored a wonder goal, why did you celebrate like that? Why can’t you celebrate a goal with just the happiness of being a great player?”.
This statement was rather ironic considering Jose Mourinho himself is a manager best known for his eccentric celebrations when his teams score a match wining goal or win a game when the odds were stacked against his teams. A manager who has onto run on the pitch celebrating after a victory, shushing camera men, cupping his ear at rival fans and many more celebrations, it is quite a shock to see him take this stance in regards to this situation.
Jose Mourinho: “Why Vini Jr didn’t celebrate like Di Stefano, Pelé or Eusebio? You score that super goal and then… why?”.
“This is always happening with him. This is the only thing I’m not understanding”.
Essentially implying that Mourinho believes Vinícius Júnior should be doing more humble celebrations, especially with all the abuse he has received from fans in the past. In many people’s eyes, this is the wrong message to send out as well as the wrong lesson to be learned from this situation. The Special One also made it very clear where his stance is on the situation.
Jose Mourinho: “I told Vini Jr the celebration had to be different. This club has Eusebio as a legend, a black player…
…Benfica is NOT a racist club”.
