Real Madrid in the Champions League: Vinícius dances last

José Mourinho, coach at Benfica Lisbon, has a fantastic talent for turning everything upside down, including well-worn routines. On Wednesday evening, the first journalists had already disappeared into the press box at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu when suddenly everyone returned to the lounge on the eighth floor. The rumor had spread that the suspended Portuguese coach would be watching the game in radio booth 6. Real Madrid had equipped them perfectly: with water, almonds, cashews, salad bowls under cling film, chips and fruit skewers for afterwards. Alone: ​​Mou didn’t come.

Apparently he was sitting in the team bus in the underground car park. Wherever he was, he saw that the playoff round was decided by the man who had dominated the headlines: Real Madrid striker Vinícius Júnior. The Brazilian scored the winning goal to make it 2-1, which increased the overall score of the playoff duel to 3-1. Real won the first leg in Lisbon 1-0, also with a goal from Vinícius. In the round of 16, Real Madrid will face Sporting Lisbon or Manchester City. With Vinícius, who, if you will, provided an answer to the racism scandal involving Benfica professional Gianluca Prestianni from the previous week.

The affair continued into match day. A few hours before the start of the game, the European football union Uefa rejected Benfica’s objection to Prestianni’s temporary ban. As a reminder: Prestianni is accused of racially insulting Vinícius in the first leg (1-0 for Real Madrid) – Prestianni vehemently denies this. Prestianni reacted to Uefa’s rejection of the objection with an angry entry on a social network on Wednesday: Uefa did not want to punish an assault proven by images – an allusion to Valverde’s aggression from the first leg – but instead issued a ban against him without having any evidence. When it comes to Real, “they don’t even hide anymore,” wrote Prestianni.

After a few minutes he deleted the entry again; someone must have told him that it wasn’t such a good idea. Where Prestianni saw the game? Good question. He didn’t notice that the Benfica fans were loudly booing Vinícius every time he touched the ball. And: that a banner was put up on the south stand of the Bernabéu Stadium that read “No to racism”. This was also notable because fascist thugs used to be based there. A few Ultras survived the club’s purge of the fan scene: Security removed a few fans who raised their arms in a fascist salute.

Real equalized Benfica’s lead after just two minutes

Where were we? Oh yes, the football game: it was of a somewhat strange nature, because in its good moments it was tactical, in its bad moments it was full of moments of distraction – and actually always error-filled and characterized by fear as the game progressed. Benfica initially worked so better and more confidently in the forward game than Madrid, who played without Kylian Mbappé, who had a knee injury, that the question almost arose as to who had gone into the game with a lead. One of these combinations gave Benfica the lead in the 14th minute. Richard Ríos sent Pavlidis deep, Real defender Raúl Asencio almost turned his cross into an own goal, and after Thibaut Courtois’ save, Rafa Silva scored.

Just two minutes later, Real Madrid equalized: Aurélien Tchouaméni intercepted a foolish pass from Nicolás Otamendi in midfield, played it to Fede Valverde, who passed it back to Tchouaméni from the baseline: The Frenchman shot in from the edge of the penalty area with the brilliance that Toni Kroos used to have in Madrid. Benfica had the best chance after that when Andreas Schjelderup once again fooled Trent Alexander-Arnold and passed it to Richard Ríos: Courtois parried his low shot with his first brilliant deed (37′).

Real defender Raul Asencio has to be carried off the pitch

Another one was to follow in the second half: in the 60th minute he directed a fantastic finish from Rafa Silva with his outside instep onto the crossbar. The level of Real’s performance dropped to such an extent that the majority of the Madrid audience whistled. In the 72nd minute, Real had to digest a shock: After a collision with his teammate Eduardo Camavinga, Asencio was left dazed, had to be treated for minutes and finally transported out on a stretcher. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Minutes later, however, came the goal from the man who had shaped the Iberian duel: Tomás Araújo lost a duel in midfield with Federico Valverde; the Uruguayan sent Vinícius on a long, lonely journey. The Brazilian finished carefully, using the inside of his foot to place the ball flat into the right corner of the Benfica goal. And he celebrated like he did the previous week in Lisbon: with a dance at the corner flag.