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Real Madrid’s Champions League knockout phase play-off tie at Benfica was halted for 10 minutes after Vinicius Junior reported alleged racist abuse and he and his team-mates left the field.<\/b><\/p>\n
Referee Francois Letexier made the crossed arms gesture to signal racist abuse following a conversation with Vinicius.<\/p>\n
The Brazil forward had put the Spanish visitors 1-0 up in the second half at the Estadio da Luz, before being booked for an excessive celebration.<\/p>\n
Following an interaction with Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni, Vinicius ran over to referee Letexier while gesturing towards the opposition player.<\/p>\n
A Real Madrid statement said Vinicius told the referee he had been racially abused by the Argentina winger.<\/p>\n
Vinicius then walked off the pitch and was followed by his Real Madrid team-mates, but play restarted 10 minutes later, in the 60th minute.<\/p>\n
The match was played out to its conclusion, with Real winning 1-0 after 12 minutes of stoppage time, during which an object thrown from the crowd struck Vinicius on the arm.<\/p>\n
After the match, Vinicius released a statement on Instagram condemning the incident.<\/p>\n
“Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are,” said Vinicius.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Benfica forward Vangelis Pavlidis defended team-mate Prestianni.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think Prestianni said anything like that to Vinicius. I think it has more to do with the heated rivalry between Brazil and Argentina than anything else,” he said.<\/p>\n
Prestianni has yet to respond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n