PARIS: Vinicius Junior scored and then alleged he had been racially abused during Real Madrid’s 1-0 win away to Benfica in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie on Tues­day, while Paris St-Germ­­ain came from two goals down to beat AS Monaco 3-2.

Elsewhere, Galatasaray stun­ned Juventus, beating the Italians 5-2 in Istanbul, and Borussia Dortmund seized the upper hand in their tie against Atalanta with a 2-0 first-leg victory.

Real headed to Lisbon to play Benfica less than three weeks after a dramatic 4-2 defeat away to the same opponents, when goalkeeper Anat­oliy Trubin scored a stunning late goal to take the Portug­uese side through to the knock-out stages and force Real to drop into the play-offs.

Benfica coach Jose Mour­i­nho was hoping to again insp­ire his current side to victory against the club he coached from 2010 to 2013, but the night was instead overshadowed by the alleged racist abuse reported by Vinicius.

The Brazilian scored a superb goal early in the second half, arrowing his shot into the top corner. His moment of brilliance, tho­ugh, quickly bec­a­me controversial when he was booked for his dancing celebration in front of the crowd.

That booking sparked an exchange with Benfica’s Gian­luca Prestianni, who pulled his shirt over his mouth before appearing to say something to Vinicius.

The Real forward then ran over to referee Francois Letexier and, pointing at Prestianni, seemed to claim he had been called “mono”, the Spanish word for monkey.

That led to a hold-up of several minutes before the game resumed, with Vinicius then being jeered by the home fans.

Mourinho was then sent off in the final stages of a spiky game for complaining too vocif­er­ously as he appealed for a second yellow card for Vinicius, meaning he will not be on the touchline for the second leg at the Bernabeu next week.

The long stoppage led to 12 minutes of added-on time, but Benfica could not use them to find an equaliser, and face an uphill struggle in the Spanish capital next week.

UEFA on Wednesday said it would “investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour”.

Prestianni has denied the allegations.

“I have never been racist with anyone and I regret the threats that I received from Real Madrid players,” the 20-year-old Argentina forward, who faces a potential 10-match ban if found guilty of racial abuse in UEFA’s disciplinary code, said on X.

Real forward Kylian Mba­ppe called on Prest­ianni to be banned.

“We cannot accept the­re’s a player playing in Eur­ope’s best competition and behaving like this,” the France captain told reporters.

“This guy doesn’t des­erve to play in the Cham­pions League again.”

Benfica coach Jose Mour­inho hit out at Vinicius for inciting Benfica’s players and fans with his celebration.

“When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way,” said the Portuguese.

Meanwhile, in Monaco, reigning European champions PSG recovered from a shambolic start as Desire Doue inspired a comeback from two goals down to beat the principality side.

United States star Folarin Balogun opened the scoring after just 55 seconds and found the net again on 18 minutes to put Monaco in control.

Vitinha then missed a chance for PSG to reduce the deficit when he had a penalty saved and last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Demb­ele came off injured before the half-hour mark, but his replac­ement Doue was the hero.

He pulled one back within two minutes of coming on, and then helped set up Achraf Hakimi for the equaliser just before the break.

Monaco then had Alek­sandr Golovin sent at the start of the second half for a challenge on Vitinha before Doue got the winner on 67 minutes.

“He is an incredible pla­yer and a different player. I am very pleased for him because he deserved it,” PSG coach Luis Enrique told broadcaster Canal Plus of Doue.

Earlier on Tuesday, Gala­t­asaray produced a rousing performance to beat Juve­ntus 5-2 in a pulsating contest in Turkey, with Noa Lang scoring twice for the hosts.

Dortmund, beaten finalists in 2024, are on course to eliminate another Italian team after beating Atalanta 2-0 with Serhou Guirassy opening the scoring early on. His 16th goal of the season was followed by a Max­imilian Beier strike just before the break.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2026