Benfica 0 Real Madrid 1
Disgusting scenes ruin a brilliant match of football. It’s such a shame that we are all not talking about Vinicius Junior being back to his best under Arbeloa in the past few weeks but the scenes following the goal are always going to take precedent as they are more important than football. Following Vini’s ridiculous finish to put Madrid 1-0 up the referee books Vini for I think provoking the crowd as he danced at the corner flag which in my opinion really started this whole thing off, every celebration after the away team scores is going to provoke the crowd, that’s football, the Benfica fans were booing him the whole game of course he’s allowed to give some back after scoring a wondergoal to put his team in the lead. The referee comes over to book Vini for ‘provoking the crowd’ then just before Benfica restart the game Ginaluca Prestianni puts his shirt over his mouth and allegedly says five racist remarks to Vini who immediately runs over to the ref to tell him what Prestianni said. The ref then stops the game to try and understand what happened which then leads to mayhem on both touchlines with Vini talking to Mourinho and eventually the game restarts about 10 minutes later around the 60th minute and Real Madrid are able to see out the 1-0 victory going into next week.
Some of the responses have been disgusting regarding Vini Junior. Some of the things I’ve seen post- match has left me wondering if we’ve all on the same side regarding these racial incidents. Especially Benfica themselves who have come out in resilient defence of Gianluca Prestianni saying that, “ the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard” regarding what Prestianni said to Vini which is absolutely ridiculous as the Madrid players are standing just yards from Prestianni whenever he says what he says. Then you look at Jose Mourinho’s comments post-match were he says, “ Vini should’ve gone and celebrated with his teammates, not in the faces of 60,000 people. He’s an incredible player, I love him. But if you score like that, you should go and celebrate with your teammates.” A bit hypocritical coming from someone who has spent his whole career winding up opposition fans at the Nou Camp in 2010, in Turin in 2018 with United and so many other times, it’s so disappointing to hear a legend of the game come out and say these things when he’s spent his whole career celebarting in front of opposition fans, just look at him running down the touchline in 2004 at Old Trafford with Porto.
Lets get onto the match. Lets spend some time actually talking about the match that happened in Benfica. We all knew it wasn’t going to be a classic like we saw a couple of weeks ago were Trubin miraculously scored in the last minute to send Benfica through on goal difference as Madrid have looked really solid defensively away from home under Arbeloa so far, clean sheets at Villareal, Valencia and trouncing Real Sociedad at home 4-1 has left Real Madrid in good form going into this one and they easily could have scored 2 or 3 if it wasn’t for Trubin in the Benfica net having an excellent game to keep them in the tie. The goal from Vini was a thing of beauty curling it beautifully past Trubin into that top corner from just inside the box. Real Madrid have looked much more assured defensively under Arbeloa keeping yet another clean sheet away from home which is going to be so important if they are to go far in the Champions League this year like they normally do.
Benfica are still in the tie. This performance was a far cry from the one a few weeks ago against Madrid were they scored 4 to qualify for the playoffs but they’re not out of it yet. They lacked that fluidity going forward that they had a few weeks ago through Schjelderup, Pavlidis and co who tore Madrid apart at times that night, you’ll always get chances against Madrid but it’s making them count that Benfica struggled with as Courtois was able to keep that clean sheet intact for the 90 minutes. Mourinho won’t be on the touchline next week as he received two quick-fire yellow cards for saying something to the ref after Benfica were awarded a free-kick but the referee didn’t issue a second yellow card to Vini which Mourinho had a problem with. No Bernabeu comeback on the touchline for Mourinho who looks to get his Benfica side back in the tie next week in Spain.
Can Real Madrid win the Champions League this season? It probably sounds like a stupid question as Madrid are always going to be one of the favourites for the competition but last years elimination to Arsenal in such fashion would have really left a mark for a lot of the Madrid players. There’s not really a clear favourite for the Champions League this year with the likes of Barcelona, PSG, Arsenal, Bayern Munich etc all up there as favourites and I wonder if not having that pressure as favourites will help Real Madrid in the Champions League this season. There’s always going to be noise that follows Madrid but if they can find that form going into the closing part of the season there is no reason they can’t at least be up there with the favourites come May time. Lots of football to be played before then so only time will tell, hopefully next weeks game is a cracker at the Bernabeu.