Benfica make Vini Jr accusation as club issue statement on racism claim

Benfica have posted a bizarre statement on social media after their Champions League clash with Real Madrid was suspended after Vinicius Jr alerted the referee over an alleged racist comment.

In a repeat of the dramatic final Champions League league phase fixture, Benfica hosted Los Blancos at the Estadio da Luz in the first leg of the play-offs.

Real won 1-0 courtesy of Vini Jr scoring the only goal of the game but the game was overshadowed by a racism accusation.

After scoring a stunning strike, the Brazilian was booked for excessive celebration. Shortly after, with the game about to resume, he darted over to referee to claim that he had been subjected to a racist comment by Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni.

Prestianni was seen covering his mouth in footage shared online and referee Francois Letexier activated anti-racism protocol, with the game delayed for around 10 minutes and member of the Benfica coaching staff shown a red card during that period.

Vini Jr was later struck by an object thrown by a fan during an ugly second half in Lisbon.

Speaking afterwards, Kylian Mbappe alleged that Prestianni had used the word "m****y" on a number of occasions and said that he had heard it along with some Benfica players.

Mbappe added that "the player doesn't deserve to play in the Champions League anymore", while Trent Alexander-Arnold called the incident a "disgrace to football".

UEFA are now set to investigate the matter but in an unusual step, Benfica's official social media channel responded to the racism allegations.

On X, @SLBenfica shared fan footage of Real players preparing for the game to get back underway and Vinicius Jr sprinting to the official to make the racism complaint.

In addition to the video, the club claimed: "As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard."

After the game, Vinicius, who has been racially abused on a number of occasions in his career, took to Instagram to release a statement.

"Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are," he wrote on Instagram.

"But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team's life."

Gianluca Prestianni releases statement

Prestianni, 20, disabled his comments on Instagram after the incident and then posted a statement on social media, denying the claims as he stated that Vinicius "regrettably misunderstood" what was said.

"I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard," Prestianni wrote.

"I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players."

Jose Mourinho comments on Vinicius racism allegation

Benfica boss Jose Mourinho was seen in animated conversation with Vinicius during the delay and in a post-match interview with Amazon Prime, revealed he told the former Flamengo man that he did not celebrate in a respectful manner.

He also claimed he told Vinicius "the biggest person [Eusebio] in the history of this club was black" as he revealed both players told him "different things" but that he wanted to "be an independent".

Mourinho, who had a successful stint in charge of Real, caused controversy when he claimed a "stadium where Vinicius plays something happens".