Vinícius Jr. Racism Allegation Shocks Benfica-Real Madrid Clash, Tchouaméni Reveals

What happened and what it means

Real Madrid midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni said after the game that what happened was unacceptable and that Vinícius Júnior reported a racist insult directed at him, which halted the match at Estádio da Luz during the Champions League knockout stage.

Real Madrid secured a valuable 1-0 victory away from home, easing their path to the return leg at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Vinícius scored in the 50th minute, dribbling from the left and firing a precise shot into the top corner to open the scoring.

The Brazilian celebrated near the corner flag, a celebration that apparently provoked portions of Benfica's crowd.

The French referee François Letexier cautioned Vinícius for alleged provocation as Benfica players clashed with him.

Reports pointed to Benfica's Gianluca Prestiani as the source of the racist remark directed at Vinícius, prompting him to alert the referee and pause the match.

Benfica supporters reacted loudly in the stands as Vinícius left the pitch to confer with Benfica's coach José Mourinho before resuming play.

After about a 10-minute pause, the match resumed with Vinícius back on the field.

Post-match, Tchouaméni said: "What happened is unacceptable. Vinícius told us the player called him a monkey. He asked us to keep playing. I don’t know what to say now; we will talk, but this is unacceptable."

He added: "If there is a problem, we leave as a team; that’s all. But we talked and agreed we must win."

Aurélien added: "It’s very hard to play here in Benfica’s stadium in the first 15 minutes, but we gradually played well, in strong harmony, and if we keep playing this way we will win many games." With the quality of Kylian and Vinícius we can do a lot; in recent weeks we’ve returned to our usual level, and we will win many games."

Punchline 1: If racism were a football tactic, Benfica would have booked a lot of players by now.

Punchline 2: Football is best when the crowd cheers the players to greatness, not insults to derail the sport.