Lineker slams Mourinho’s Benfica: “Blaming Vinícius is ridiculous” | OneFootball

Gary Lineker was categorical in his remarks about the match between Benfica and Real Madrid. The former English international began by stating, in a forceful phrase, that the Estádio da Luz could be considered a possible “stadium of darkness,” directly alluding to the atmosphere surrounding the accusations of racism involving Gianluca Prestianni and Vinícius Júnior and making a play on words with the name of Benfica’s stadium.

For Lineker, the focus should be on the seriousness of the accusations, not on distracting the debate. The commentator emphasized that turning Vinícius’s goal celebration into a pretext to justify reactions or assign blame makes no sense. Players celebrate—they always have—and blaming those who celebrate, he said, is “ridiculous and wrong.”

Another episode that drew attention was Prestianni’s gesture of covering his mouth while speaking. In an already controversial context, this detail heightened doubts and discussions about what really happened on the pitch.

Lineker also criticized the atmosphere generated after the match, considering that the debate quickly degenerated into tribalism, with too many voices more concerned with protecting the club’s image than upholding basic principles of respect in football. For the Englishman, the problem goes beyond rivalries and requires a clear response from Portuguese football.

Despite the criticism, he acknowledged that most fans and players are not racist and that locker rooms are often examples of multicultural coexistence. Even so, he stressed that a single exception is enough to tarnish the reputation of the game—and it was this exception that, in his view, made the night at the Luz so heavy.

In the end, Lineker’s message was clear: what happened should not be turned into a war between fan groups, but rather used as a moment for serious reflection on the direction of football and on how to respond to accusations of this nature.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.