Carlo Ancelotti is furious at the press conference after the duel between Valencia and Real Madrid (1-0). The coach of the Madrilenians is dismayed by the way Vinícius Júnior was treated by the fans of Valencia, who during much of the match ‘mono‘ (translation: monkey) would have shouted. Around the 72nd minute, things exploded and Vinícius became furious with the racist fans and threatened to stop playing, but in the end nothing was done about the situation. Ancelotti lashes out at the organization of LaLiga.
Halfway through the second half of the meeting in Mestalla, Vinícius exploded because of the alleged racist behavior of the home fans. The Brazilian pointed out the fan who would have whipped up other supporters with a megaphone and repeatedly shouted ‘mono‘ would have shouted, but Valencia did not intervene. In the end, Vinícius continued to play piqued and after several provocations he was tempted to deal a blow to Hugo Duro in injury time. For that action, the attacker received a direct red card from referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea.
Ancelotti cannot believe that the match was not permanently stopped, he made clear during the press conference afterwards. “I am not going to talk about football here. What about? Well, about what happened today. That an entire stadium yells monkey at a player and that a coach has to think about switching because of racism. Something is very wrong in this competition. The only option is to stop the game permanently.”
“I spoke to Vinícius during the match and asked him if he wanted to continue playing, because the atmosphere in the stadium was very hostile,” continues Ancelotti. “I actually wanted to change him: I think playing in a racist atmosphere is a bad plan. It has never happened to me that I think about a substitution because of racism, and not because of a weak performance. It is unacceptable and LaLiga has a big problem that is not Vinicius. They throw a ball on the field when we are on the attack, they insult Vinícius the whole game and in the end he has to go off with a red card? What are we talking about?”, the choice lord grumbles.
Valencia has responded to the terrible events in the Mestalla by means of a statement and distances itself from the responsible fans. The club indicates that it will get to the bottom of the incident and act against the guilty. At the same time, Vinícius criticizes the organization of the competition via Instagram. “The prize for the racists was my red card. This is not football, this is LaLiga.” The winger makes an ironic reference to LaLiga’s slogan, ‘This is football, this is LaLiga’, with his last sentence.