{"id":504406,"date":"2026-02-26T03:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504406\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T03:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:05:07","slug":"vinicius-jr-seals-real-madrid-progress-amid-benfica-boos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504406\/","title":{"rendered":"Vin\u00edcius Jr. seals Real Madrid progress amid Benfica boos"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being loudly booed, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior<\/a> danced again. This time in front of Real Madrid<\/a> supporters while leading his team to the round of 16 of the Champions League, a week after accusing a Benfica<\/a> opponent of racially insulting him.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian scored in the 80th minute to clinch a 2-1 victory for the record 15-time European champions in the second leg of their playoff tie to progress 3-1 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Vin\u00edcius celebrated by dancing by the corner flag just like in the first leg — then in front of Benfica fans — which ignited a confrontation with the Portuguese team’s players and the accusation that Gianluca Prestianni<\/a> called him a racist slur.<\/p>\n

“I’m glad Vini dances and keeps dancing, that means he’s scoring goals,” said Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“That’s our Vin\u00edcius,” added midfielder Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni<\/a>, who scored Madrid’s first goal in the 16th, a couple of minutes after Benfica had taken the lead through Rafa Silva<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior celebrates scoring Real Madrid’s second goal against Benfica.\u00a0Angel Martinez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Prestianni, who has denied racially insulting Vin\u00edcius and has been defended by Benfica, was provisionally suspended one match by UEFA and did not play Wednesday even though the Argentine traveled to the Spanish capital. UEFA earlier Wednesday rejected Benfica’s last-minute appeal<\/a> against the provisional suspension.<\/p>\n

Last week’s match was halted for nearly 10 minutes after the referee installed the anti-racism protocol following Vin\u00edcius’ complaint to him.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Vin\u00edcius scored on a breakaway, calmly sending a low shot past the goalkeeper for his sixth goal in his past five matches for Madrid.<\/p>\n

The more than 3,000 Benfica fans at the Bernab\u00e9u jeered nearly every time Vin\u00edcius touched the ball. They celebrated when he lost control of the ball early in the game. The Benfica supporters also booed emphatically when the name of the Brazilian player was announced in the starting lineup ahead of the match.<\/p>\n

The boos gradually lost force as the match went on and Madrid took control of the game.<\/p>\n

Vin\u00edcius also participated in the buildup of what would have been Madrid’s second goal, but it was disallowed for offside.<\/p>\n

Before Wednesday’s match, Madrid fans displayed a banner saying “No To Racism.” A “respect” banner also was shown behind one of the goals at the Bernab\u00e9u.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid fans display a banner against racism ahead of their Champions League playoff second leg against Benfica.\u00a0Thomas COEX \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Real Madrid said in a statement after the match it “urgently requested” the club’s disciplinary committee to open a procedure to expel a fan who was caught by television cameras performing a Nazi salute before the match.<\/p>\n

Madrid said the supporter appeared to be part of its organized fan group behind one of the goals at the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n

“This member was identified by the club’s security staff moments after appearing on the broadcast and was immediately expelled from the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium,” the club said. “Real Madrid condemns this type of gesture and expression that incites violence and hatred in sports and society.”<\/p>\n

Madrid fans also jeered when Benfica central defender Nicol\u00e1s Otamendi<\/a> touched the ball. Otamendi, who is also Argentine, was one of the players that confronted Vin\u00edcius after the Brazilian’s celebration by the Benfica flag.<\/p>\n

Also missing for Benfica was coach Jos\u00e9 Mourinho, the former Madrid coach who was sent off late in the first leg for complaining to the referee. Mourinho did not participate in the pregame news conference Tuesday and was expected to watch the match from the stands at the Bernab\u00e9u.<\/p>\n

Madrid defender Ra\u00fal Asencio<\/a> had to be carried off the field on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital for tests after a hard collision with teammate Eduardo Camavinga<\/a> in the second half.<\/p>\n

The central defender hit the ground hard and had to be attended to for a few minutes on the field. The medical staff immobilized him before taking him off the field.<\/p>\n

Madrid coach \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa said Asencio apparently injured his neck but “it wasn’t serious.”<\/p>\n

Madrid were already without France<\/a> forward Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a>, who missed Wednesday’s game with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

“I hope it’s not serious, and he can come back in a few days or weeks,” Arbeloa said.<\/p>\n

“Without Kylian, we need [Vini] even more. … He has to be our leader.”<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Alex Kirkland and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being loudly booed, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior danced again. This time in front of Real Madrid supporters while leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-504406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}