![\"Benfica](\"https:\/\/cms.joe.co.uk\/uploads\/2026\/02\/port-5.jpg?height=1080&width=1920\"\/)
<\/p>\nA huge night of controversy in Lisbon<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jose Mourinho and Benfica are being heavily criticised for seemingly justifying the alleged racism received by Real Madrid’ Vinicius Jr after a night of high drama in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Mourinho, who was also sent off, said: \u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw two completely different things. I want to be independent, and I don\u2019t comment about it. I told him [Vinicius Jr] exactly that. I told him, \u2018when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [Vinicius Jr and Prestianni] told me different things. But I don\u2019t 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\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking on Amazon Prime, Wayne Rooney commented on Mourinho’s remarks, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s very unfair what he\u2019s saying about Vinicius.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Vinicius later wrote on Instagram: \u201cRacists are, above all, cowards. They need to cover their mouths with their shirts to show their weakness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they also count on the protection of others who, in theory, have the obligation to punish them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing 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\u2019t understand why. On the other hand, it was a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like being in situations like this, especially after a big win when the headlines should be about Real Madrid, but it\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
#Benfica #Mourinho #slammed #reaction #Vinicius #racism #claim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A huge night of controversy in Lisbon Jose Mourinho and Benfica are being heavily criticised for seemingly justifying the alleged racism received by Real Madrid’ Vinicius Jr after a night of high drama in the Champions League. Vinicius’ goal gave Real Madrid a 1-0 first-leg lead in their Champions League knockout play-off against Benfica, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3327,1998,976,3328,3329,3333,3331,3243,3330,3332],"class_list":{"0":"post-3544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-benfica","9":"tag-champions-league","10":"tag-claim","11":"tag-jose-mourinho","12":"tag-mourinho","13":"tag-racism","14":"tag-reaction","15":"tag-real-madrid","16":"tag-slammed","17":"tag-vinicius"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}