00:01The football world should have been celebrating another piece of brilliance from Vinicius Jr.,
00:06whose wonderstrike gave Real Madrid a 1-0 win over Benfica.
00:12Instead, the first leg of the Champions League playoff tie was marred by controversy,
00:16with Vinicius on the receiving end of another alleged racial slur.
00:22The latest accusation is that Benfica midfielder Gianluca Prestiani
00:26racially abused the forward minutes after firing Real into the lead at the Estadio de Luz.
00:33You have to ask the Benfica player what he said to Vinicius.
00:36I think that everyone here and everyone in the world of football deserves an answer to that question.
00:43Vinicius celebrated his goal by dancing by the corner flag
00:46before exchanging words with several Benfica players, including Prestiani.
00:52The match was paused for 10 minutes as the Brazilian left the pitch in protest,
00:57having reported the incident to the referee.
01:00Of course, we stand by Vinicius and whatever he decided to do, we would have been with him.
01:06Hours after the game concluded,
01:08UEFA appointed an ethics and disciplinary inspector to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour.
01:17In a statement, Vinicius said,
01:20Racists are, above all, cowards.
01:22They need to put their shirts over their mouths to show how weak they are.
01:26But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them.
01:31Nothing that happened today is new in my life.
01:35Kylian Mbappe went into bat for his teammates by calling for Prestiani to be banned from playing in the Champions
01:40League.
01:41But what the Argentine said exactly remains unclear.
01:48I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vinny Jr.,
01:53who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard, Prestiani said.
01:58Benfica boss Jose Mourinho then added fuel to the fire by appearing to suggest that Vinicius had provoked a reaction
02:04with his goal celebration.
02:08I only want to say that this happens in so many stadiums.
02:12It's always the same thing.
02:14Something here is wrong.
02:18Why doesn't he celebrate the way Di Stefano, Pelé, Eusebio did?
02:25Celebrate a goal with the happiness of being a great player.
02:28Only with the joy of being a player of another world.
02:33Vinicius Jr. has found himself at the centre of a racism storm on far too many occasions.
02:38And through no fault of his own.
02:41Instead of talking about his winning goal in Lisbon, the match was marred by controversy.
02:46With Vinicius on the receiving end of another alleged racial slur.
02:50And here's another important thing here for a good friend.
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