MADRID: Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa on Tuesday called on European football governing body UEFA to make their fight against racism into more than just a slogan after the alleged abuse of star Vinicius Junior.
UEFA provisionally suspended Benfica midfielder Gianluca Prestianni for Wednesday’s Champions League play-off second leg against Real after Vinicius accused him of racial abuse in the first leg last week.
If UEFA find Prestianni, who argued with the Brazilian while holding his shirt over his mouth, abused Vinicius at the end of their investigation into the incident he will be suspended for a minimum of 10 matches.
“We have a great opportunity to mark a turning point in the fight against racism,” Arbeloa told reporters.
“UEFA, which has always been and has led this fight against racism, now has the chance not to leave it at just a slogan, at just a nice banner before matches, and I hope that they seize this opportunity.”
Vinicius scored a brilliant goal in the first leg, enabling Real to claim a 1-0 victory, before the alleged abuse led to the game being stopped for around 10 minutes.
Arbeloa said he believed Vinicius will thrive on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu as the record 15-time champions bid to reach the last 16.
“Vinicius has always shown a lot of bravery and a lot of character,” said Arbeloa.
“That is always his response, it always has been and I think it always will be.
“He is a fighter and I’m sure tomorrow he will go out to fight and have a great game, and keep showing he’s one of the best players on the planet.”
Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois backed the 25-year-old winger, despite Prestianni and Benfica insisting there was no racial abuse.
“(Benfica) are going to believe what their player says and we are 100 per cent behind Vini, because Vini has fought thousands of battles on the pitch with defenders, there have been lots of clashes with players and he has never said something like this (happened),” Courtois told reporters.
“As (Prestianni) covered his mouth with his shirt, we can never know, and I think in the end Benfica will defend their player.
“There’s not much more we can do and then it’s up to UEFA and the institutions to decide what they want to decide.”
The Belgian stopper said he disagreed with Benfica coach Jose Mourinho’s words after the game, with the veteran Portuguese manager attacking Vinicius for what he deemed a disrespectful celebration.
“At the end of the day Mourinho is Mourinho. As a coach you’re always, I think, going to defend your club and what your player has told you,” said Courtois.
“The only thing that disappoints me a bit is using Vini’s celebration, I don’t think Vini did anything wrong there...Benfica have appealed against Prestianni’s provisional one match ban to try and make him available to face Real.
“Prestianni is being labelled a racist person, and I can assure you he is anything but racist,” Benfica president Rui Costa told reporters earlier on Tuesday.
Mourinho has not set foot in the Santiago Bernabeu since leaving the Los Blancos in 2013, but his Champions League homecoming will be far more complicated than initially anticipated. Mourinho cannot sit in the dug-out for the play-off second leg after being sent off.
Mourinho was dismissed for vociferous complaints from the touchline.
The coach said referee Francois Letexier was avoiding booking Real players who were at risk of suspension for the second leg.
LUIS ENRIQUE’S DILEMMA
In Wednesday’s other match, Luis Enrique’s Paris St-Germain will go against fellow Ligue 1 opponents AS Monaco and the Spaniard may be unsure how to approach the second leg.
Although PSG are 3-2 ahead, protecting leads is not his style. But attacking too much against a technically strong Monaco side could expose his team to costly counterattacks.
Coach Sebastien Pocognoli’s Monaco has 13 goals in the past six games. Although two of those have been defeats, the attack is looking much sharper.
Monaco went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes against PSG last week, only for clumsy defending to allow PSG back into the game. Against RC Lens on Saturday, Monaco overturned a 2-0 deficit with a three-goal burst in 10 second-half minutes.
PSG’s defense looks weaker than last season — conceding against Monaco after just 55 seconds — and is not helped by uncertainty over the goalkeeper.
“The team can improve defensively at the moment,” Luis Enrique said at a pre-game news conference. “When you are 2-0 down within 20 minutes it normally ends in disaster. But we have shown this season and last that we can overcome any difficulty.”
Since Gianluigi Donnarumma’s departure, Luis Enrique has alternated between Matvei Safonov and summer signing Lucas Chevalier.
Rapid counterattacks are Monaco’s strength and with the duo of attackers Ansu Fati and Folarin Balogun fully back, Pocognoli would be looking to hurt the defending champions.
Their movement up front, allied to the runs of attacking midfielder Maghnes Akliouche, may stretch PSG’s defense and leave space for midfielders behind.
On the other hand, PSG will be without star forward Ousmane Dembélé
The Ballon d’Or winner came off with a calf injury last Tuesday and missed Saturday’s home game against Metz in Ligue 1.
“I don’t know how long (Dembélé will be out for), it depends on certain things,” Luis Enrique said. “We don’t want to take any risks. It’s not serious but we need to be patient.”
One trump card PSG have up their sleeves is their 20-year-old forward Desire Doue. Every time Doue has scored for PSG the team have won.
“It’s a very good statistic and I saw it very recently. It’s very pleasing,” Doué said on Tuesday. “But you should also highlight that when I don’t score the team also wins very often. You shouldn’t just wait for me to score every time.”
Meanwhile, Galatasaray travel to Turin on Wednesday with one foot in the Champions League round of 16 after dismantling Juventus 5-2 in a breathtaking first leg in Istanbul, leaving the Italian giants facing the kind of comeback that rarely materializes at this level.
Dortmund will travel to face Atalanta with a comfortable 2-0 lead.
Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2026