From Vinicius Jr.’s celebration to the racial abuse on the field and confrontations between players and even staff members of both teams, tensions rose throughout the match.
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However, in the end Real Madrid took home a 1-0 lead made even sweeter by the fact that it was Vinicius who scored. After all, the winger was the center of all the attention and controversy of the night.
The legend of Inter Milan gives his opinion
Speaking to the media after the match, former Real Madrid attacking midfielder Wesley Sneijder spoke about the incident between Vinicius Jr. and Gianluca Prestianni and how the Benfica player’s actions are simply unacceptable.
“Prestianni should be a man and not cover his mouth while saying that to Vinicius. If you are going to say it, at least say it without covering your mouth.”
Then he made it very clear that racism has no place in football and how badly it reflects on the sport that there are still people who insult athletes of darker color.
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“It’s a scandal that people keep calling black people ‘Monkeys’!
Yesterday a great controversy broke out. (Photo by Ángel Martínez/Getty Images)
“Oh, and something else. Prestianni literally has black teammates! What are they thinking?” he added.
Next, Sneijder spoke about the incident between Nicolás Otamendi and Vinicius Jr., where after a brief altercation, the former showed the Real Madrid star his FIFA World Cup tattoo, his Copa América titles and the Finalísima.
“What Otamendi did was super childish. Is he right in the head? He was literally 1-0 down too.” -he began.
“If I were Vinícius, I would have responded with ‘Messi won that World Cup for you, you had nothing to do with it’”, he added.
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Speaking about Otamendi’s reaction being very immature, the Dutch legend said:
“Why are you doing this to a Real Madrid player? Do you have any idea how many CL titles Vinícius has won? And are you showing him trophies?”
Source: The Sideline