The La Liga match between Real Madrid and Valencia at the Mestalla descended into mayhem, with the home side edging Carlo Ancelotti’s team 1-0. The Whites returned to domestic play after being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate.
Completely swept by the new English champions, Madrid will finish the 2022-23 season with just the Copa del Rey to their name, having lost the Spanish league title to arch-rivals Barcelona. After suffering such a devastating defeat, Carlo Ancelotti made wholesale changes to his team for their return to league play.
Eventually, a goal by Diego Lopez in the first half proved to be the game-winner, giving the team from the Spanish capital back-to-back losses. The game’s beauty, though, was marred by unpleasant incidents involving Real Madrid star Vinicius, Valencia players, and Los Che’s fans from the stands.
What did Vinicius post on social media after red card against Valencia?
This La Liga game is regrettably not an exception in what has been a disturbingly consistent pattern of racial insults directed against Vinicius during the 2022-23 season. After the Brazilian winger pointed fingers to identify the culprit in the stands, the play was halted for a while so that the audience could be told that the game would be called off if they did not improve their behavior.
Valencia fans chanting “Mono” (monkey) towards Vinicius. This is La Liga x.com/QuislingT/stat…
Upon hearing the racial slurs, the 22-year-old told the referee, “I don’t want to play anymore,” as reported by the Spanish newspaper Marca. Ending a miserable day for Madrid, the young star player was sent off in the 17th minute of stoppage time for shoving a Valencia player in the face after a major physical clash.
By the time Vini was in the thick of a confrontation between the two teams, tempers were already on the verge of boiling over, so it was not shocking to see VAR overturn the yellow card and give him a red. After the game, the Brazilian took to Instagram to react to the latest unfortunate episode.
🚨⚠️ Official Vinicius Jr. statement.
“The prize the racists have won is my red card. It’s not football, it’s La Liga”, said another Instagram story the Brazil international posted.
Vinicius Jr agora no instagram: “Não é futebol, é La Liga”
