Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni Out of Champions League Playoff Against Real Madrid
The second leg of the Champions League playoff takes place at the Bernabeu for Real Madrid, holding a 1-0 lead over Benfica after last week's game.
The game was decided by a brilliant goal from Vinicius Jr., but that was not the biggest talking point from the game, unfortunately. The Brazilian reported to the referee that he was the victim of racial abuse from Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni.
The game was stopped for around 10 minutes due to UEFA protocol, but play continued. The aftermath of the situation drew more news, which was a bad look for Benfica head coach Jose Mourinho and the Portuguese club. Just two days before the second leg, a decision has been made regarding Prestianni and the game in Madrid.
Prestianni Will Not Play in Champions League Playoff
A decision has been made by UEFA regarding Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni. The Argentinian will not play in the second leg of the Champions League playoff at the Bernabeu, given a one-game suspension while the investigation into racial abuse continues.
The UEFA statement read as follows (per Fabrizio Romano):
“Following the appointment of a UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector (EDI) to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour during the UEFA Champions League 2025/2026 Knock-out Play-off match between SL Benfica and Real Madrid CF on 17 February 2026, and upon request of the EDI with an interim report, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) today decided to provisionally suspend Mr. Gianluca Prestianni for the next (1) UEFA club competition match for which he would otherwise be eligible for the prima facie violation of Article 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR) related to a discriminatory behaviour”.
“This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies”.
🚨 BREAKING: Gianluca Prestianni will NOT play against Real Madrid, suspended by UEFA.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 23, 2026
Provisional suspension has been notified to Benfica today while investigation for the racism case with Vinicius Jr continues. pic.twitter.com/RCkasEyuEL
The question was whether The Eagles would take the 20-year-old to Madrid for the second leg, taking him out of the limelight with the ongoing investigation. However, that has been taken out of his hands by UEFA.
There will still be plenty of hostility for the former Los Blancos coach Jose Mourinho, and possibly some of the Benfica players. The Real Madrid team will be focused on the job at hand, and after the loss at the weekend, will not want to crash out of Europe's top competition.
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Jordan Merritt is a staff writer for Real Madrid On SI. Before joining On SI, he wrote at Fansided, covering Ole Miss football, basketball, and baseball. He has also written for YardBarker, Heavy Sports, and the official EFL site. Merritt is a big sports fan, spending most of his weekends watching Soccer, the NFL, the NBA, college football/basketball, and others. Before starting his career as a freelance writer, Merritt was an Engineer for over 10 years. He lives in West Yorkshire, England, and is keenly interested in sports trading cards.
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