{"id":24115,"date":"2026-02-25T01:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:26:22","slug":"prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/","title":{"rendered":"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ue-c-article--first-letter-highlighted\">Prestiani&#8217;s alleged racist attack on Vinicius in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 shocked the world of football. An image of a Benfica player talking to a Brazilian player with his shirt covering his mouth has gone unpunished. UEFA provisionally suspended the Argentine player who traveled to Madrid despite the sanction.<\/p>\n<p>A photo of Prestiani and other teammates before boarding a plane for the Spanish capital confirms the Argentine&#8217;s presence in Spain. However, Benfica did not give up on their expectations for the player against Real Madrid, considering the trip that finally took place. The reason is that at the time the Portuguese club believed that the appeal it was planning against this sanction could be explicitly resolved.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"ue-c-article__blockquote\">\n<p>Although Prestiani has been labeled a racist, he is by no means a racist. I can guarantee<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__blockquote-author\">Louis Costa<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Benfica president Rui Costa spoke to the media before the Portugal international&#8217;s plane departed for Madrid. &#8220;What was said and what was not said, I am not on the field. A lot can be said in a situation like this. We believe the words of the players. More than that, it is important to know the players at home. Prestiani has been labeled as a racist, but he is by no means a racist, I can guarantee you that,&#8221; Costa told A Bora.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He spoke a week after the incident. It&#8217;s easy to explain. We had to communicate all the procedures to the fans and defend the players, but it was not justified for the president to talk about it every day. The actual verdict has not yet been handed down, there is a suspension, but there was no point in talking every day about a matter that is still pending. We were waiting for the process to be resolved,&#8221; added the Benfica president.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Costa points to Valverde<\/h2>\n<p>Before heading to Madrid, coach Rui Costa concluded: &#8220;One thing does not exclude the other, and I don&#8217;t want to use other cases to ignore the Prestiani situation, but we cannot forget what happened at home. There was a clear aggressiveness by Valverde that should have been excluded from this match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/champions-league\/2026\/02\/24\/699dcb1ce2704e9c658b456e.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prestiani&#8217;s alleged racist attack on Vinicius in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 shocked the world of football. An image of a Benfica player talking to a Brazilian player with his shirt covering his mouth has gone unpunished. UEFA provisionally suspended the Argentine player who traveled to Madrid despite the sanction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prestiani&#8217;s alleged racist attack on Vinicius in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 shocked the world of football. An image of a Benfica player talking to a Brazilian player with his shirt covering his mouth has gone unpunished. UEFA provisionally suspended the Argentine player who traveled to Madrid despite the sanction.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T01:26:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/\",\"name\":\"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/17719490245437.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-25T01:26:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/17719490245437.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/17719490245437.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. Get the latest EPL news, live match updates, transfer rumors, team analysis, fixtures, and exclusive insights for true football fans.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\",\"name\":\"admin_ok9yktt6\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin_ok9yktt6\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/author\/admin_ok9yktt6\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates","og_description":"Prestiani&#8217;s alleged racist attack on Vinicius in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 shocked the world of football. An image of a Benfica player talking to a Brazilian player with his shirt covering his mouth has gone unpunished. UEFA provisionally suspended the Argentine player who traveled to Madrid despite the sanction.","og_url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/","og_site_name":"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates","article_published_time":"2026-02-25T01:26:22+00:00","author":"admin_ok9yktt6","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin_ok9yktt6","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/","url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/","name":"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/17719490245437.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-25T01:26:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/17719490245437.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/17719490245437.jpg","width":1200,"height":800},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/prestiani-travels-to-madrid-marca\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Prestiani travels to Madrid | Marca"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/","name":"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates","description":"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. Get the latest EPL news, live match updates, transfer rumors, team analysis, fixtures, and exclusive insights for true football fans.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9","name":"admin_ok9yktt6","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin_ok9yktt6"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/eplvip.com"],"url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/author\/admin_ok9yktt6\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}