Topics: Benfica, Real Madrid, Champions League, Vinicius Jr
An image of Gianluca Prestianni's mobile phone lock screen that was captured in the build-up to Tuesday's Champions League game between Real Madrid and Benfica is going viral.
On Tuesday night, Vinicius Jr left the Estadio da Luz pitch for around 10 minutes after alleging that he was racially abused by Prestianni.
Prestianni appeared to have uttered something while covering his mouth with his shirt, and Vinicius reported the incident to referee Francois Letexier, who made the crossed arms gesture to signal racist abuse.
After the full-time whistle, Vinicius released a statement condemning the incident. "Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are," he wrote on Instagram.
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"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."
He added: "I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don't understand why. On the other hand, it was just a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose."
Prestianni has since denied making a racist slur. "I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard," he wrote on Instagram.
"I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players."
In the aftermath of Tuesday night's game, an image of Prestianni's lock screen, which was taken from a YouTube video on Benfica's official channel, resurfaced on social media as Brazilian outlet Ole covered the story.
Prestianni can be seen sitting alongside teammate Nicolas Otamendi as the team travelled to the Azores Islands ahead of their Liga Portugal clash against Santa Clara on February 13.
Here, the Argentine forward briefly flashed his phone on camera, with the lock screen appearing to feature a picture of him and Vinicius from January, when Benfica and Real Madrid met in the Champions League league phase.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Benfica boss Jose Mourinho was asked if he felt Vinicius incited the crowd.
"Yes. I believe so," he said. "It should be the crazy moment of the game, an amazing goal. Unfortunately [he was] not just happy to score that astonishing goal. When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way."
He continued: "I told [Vinicius], when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back. When he was arguing about racism, I told him the biggest person in the history of this club [Eusebio] was black.
"This club, the last thing that it is, is racist. If in his mind there was something in relation to that, this is Benfica. They [Vinicius and Prestianni] told me different things. But I don't believe in one or another. I want to be an independent."
