Courtois: ‘This a moment for football to end these things’
Real Madrid meet Benfica in second leg on Wednesday
Alvaro Arbeloa and Thibaut Courtois have called on Uefa to take a genuine stand against racism and change football following the alleged racist abuse of Vinícius Júnior by Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s Champions League playoff first leg at Benfica last week, with Arbeloa imploring the governing body to go beyond “just slogans” as the two teams prepare to meet again.
Courtois, meanwhile, also expressed his disappointment with José Mourinho for linking the incident to Vinícius’s celebration of the only goal of the game in Lisbon and insisted suggestions that Prestianni’s defence might be that he instead used a homophobic slur would be “just as bad”.
Last Tuesday’s game at the Estádio da Luz was delayed for 10 minutes after Vinícius informed the referee, François Letexier, that Prestianni had racially abused him, with teammate Kylian Mbappé later accusing his opponent of calling Vinícius a “monkey” five times. Prestianni has travelled to Madrid for the return leg after Benfica appealed against the provisional one-match ban handed to him by Uefa while they conduct an investigation.
