Benfica have publicly shown their support for Gianluca Prestianni, who has been accused of racism by Vinicius Jr. and other Real Madrid players after a heated game in the first leg of the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League knockout phase playoffs.
Shortly after Prestianni broke his silence on the allegations, Benfica shared his message on their official X account with a four-word message to declare their full support for the midfielder.
“Juntos, ao teu lado (Together, by your side),” the club’s message read on the platform formerly known as Twitter. On top of that, Benfica doubled down by sharing a video aiming to prove Prestianni’s innocence.
“As the images show, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they are claiming they heard,” the Benfica account on X wrote along with the following video:
Benfica defend Prestianni, while Real Madrid stand behind Vinicius
Benfica’s support of Prestianni echoes Jose Mourinho’s comments about Vinicius’ allegations, as the Portuguese manager completely defended his club while questioning the Brazilian’s goal celebration—even though he said he’s not taking sides.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have also been very firm about their stance. Aurelien Tchouameni revealed that Prestianni’s alleged racist slur towards Vinicius was “m*onkey,” a comment that Kylian Mbappe also claimed to hear.
Vinicius left the field and the match stopped due to the racism protocol, but since Prestianni covered his mouth with his jersey, the cameras couldn’t check what he really said. Mbappe, however, was seen furious at the Argentine after the incident, shouting “you are a f—ing racist” at Prestianni on the field.
The French star’s anger didn’t end after the final whistle though, as Mbappe went on to call for Prestianni to be banned from the Champions League. Now we’ll have to wait and see what UEFA has to say about this controversial situation, with an investigation expected to take place as there are two sides to the story.