Gianluca Prestianni has denied aiming a racial slur towards Vinicius Jr while Benfica have claimed that the Real Madrid winger was not close enough to hear what was said.
Madrid sealed a 1-0 win over Benfica in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie in Portugal with Vinicius scoring the winning goal in the 50th minute.
But as the two teams prepared to restart the game, Prestianni was seen covering his mouth with his shirt as he spoke to Vinicius near the halfway line.
The Brazil international immediately ran to referee, Francois Letexier, claiming that Prestianni had said a racist insult towards him.
Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe alleged after the game that Prestianni had called Vinicius ‘mono’ or monkey.
In a message on Instagram after the game, Prestianni wrote: ‘I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard.
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‘I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.’
Benfica, meanwhile, posted a video of the incident on their official X account with the caption: ‘As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players cannot have heard what they claim to have heard.’
Speaking after the game, Mbappe said: ‘What I saw is very clear – number 25 said five times to Vini that you are a monkey. Everyone can have their opinion, but this kind of behavior is unacceptable. It’s wonderful to play in the Champions League, but showing this image is terrible for world football.
‘I called him racist because I think he is. He tried to hide behind his shirt, but his face doesn’t lie.
‘This type of person is not a professional colleague. A young player cannot have the freedom to say things like this on a football field. It’s a big problem, and we’ll see what happens.’
In his own statement, Vinicius wrote: ‘Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are.
‘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. 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.
‘I don’t like to appear in situations like this, especially after a big win and when the headlines should be about Real Madrid, but it’s necessary.’
Meanwhile, Benfica head coach Jose Mourinho criticised Vinicius Jr for his celebrations after scoring Madrid’s winning goal.
‘I spoke to Alvaro [Arbeloa] before I understood what the problem was, just to say: ‘This guy scores a goal that’s out of this world, why does he being stupid in the corner?.’ Then later when I realise, [and] it seems Vinicius doesn’t want to play, we were talking about [whether] we play again,’ Mourinho said.
‘I want to try to be more balanced than Arbeloa and Mbappe. I do not want to say that Vinicius is a liar and nor do I want to say that my player is an incredible boy. They have decided to go their way, their perspective; I don’t want to go there. I said to Vinicius: you scored a goal that was out of this world, why do you celebrate like this? Why not celebrate like Di Stefano, Pele, Eusebio, just with the happiness of being a player from another world?’
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