Benfica report Real Madrid star to UEFA over “punch” incident | OneFootball

The fallout from Tuesday’s Champions League clash between Benfica and Real Madrid has continued in the last 48 hours. An investigation has already been launched into alleged racist abuse from Gianluca Prestianni towards Vinicius Junior, and now, another case looks set to be opened.

During the 83rd minute of the match at the Estadio da Luz, Fede Valverde and Samuel Dahl were involved in an incident that saw the Benfica defender fall to the ground. According to former referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez (via Diario AS), the Uruguayan should have been sent off for throwing a punch.

“That’s a red card. He throws a punch without any sense… it should have been Valverde’s sending off, even if he didn’t make an impact.”

Benfica also believe that Valverde should have been dismissed, which is why they have referred the matter to UEFA, as per Diario AS. The European football governing body will now open a case into this to determine whether the Real Madrid midfielder will receive a retrospective ban.

Image via Marca

If it is deemed that Valverde showed violent conduct towards Dahl, he would receive a suspension. It is unclear exactly which punishment he could be exposed to, but the likelihood would be that he’d miss next week’s second leg at the Bernabeu in the event that UEFA side with Benfica.

Valverde unlikely to be banned

However, the report notes that Benfica’s report is unlikely to come to much. UEFA would need to discredit the criteria of the referee and the VAR if they were to pass down punishment to Valverde, which has not happened all too often in the past.

In the coming days, it will be known how UEFA rule on the Valverde, as well as the one with Vinicius and Prestianni. Real Madrid will be anticipating the verdict in both.