Benfica has come out in defense of Gianluca Prestianni after Vinícius Jr. reported a racist insult during the Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid. The game was paused for up to 10 minutes, and now conflicting accounts of the sequence of events are circulating. After the match, Kylian Mbappé was one of several Real Madrid players who spoke out about what happened to his teammate, insisting that he "heard" the Brazilian being insulted-though Benfica claims it was "impossible." "What I saw is very clear: the number 25 said five times to Vini that you are a monkey. Everyone can have their opinion, but we are giving the facts and we all have to move in the same direction," were Mbappé's words in the mixed zone. Benfica releases video to counter Mbappé Hours after the match at the Estádio da Luz, the Portuguese club posted a video showing Vinícius Jr. taunting the crowd, then appearing next to Prestianni before running toward the referee. https://twitter.com/USER_ID/status/2023943527906844839 "As the images show, given the distance, Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard," reads the caption accompanying the clip of the sequence. In the footage, Benfica attempts to demonstrate that no player was close enough, and there is no trace of Mbappé-who even called for the young Argentine not to play in the Champions League again. "A player like that does not deserve to play in the Champions League anymore. We hope UEFA takes action and doesn't say nothing happened. This is a serious case," he added in his statements.
