Valencia Beat Real Madrid 1-0 To Boost Survival Hope

Valencia beat Real Madrid 1-0 on Sunday to boost their La Liga survival hopes but the victory was tarnished by an ugly incident involving apparent racism aimed at Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior.

Youngster Diego Lopez scored for Valencia in the first half but the chaotic second period saw Vinicius square off with home fans at Mestalla. He was later sent off in added time at the end of the game for hitting Hugo Duro during a brawl.

Midway through the second half, the play was delayed for several minutes after Vinicius appeared to be racially abused by a Valencia supporter.

The Brazilian forward stood in front of the fans behind the goal and pointed to one, with team-mate Eder Militao by his side.

“I don’t want to talk about football, I want to talk about what happened here, it is more important,” Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti made this known in an interview.

“A stadium shouting monkey at a player, and that a coach has to think about taking off the player, there’s something bad in this league.”

Referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea spoke to stadium officials, who made an announcement calling for racist insults to stop before play resumed around 10 minutes later.

“There’s a lack of respect for Vinicius shown continuously at almost every stadium in Spain,” Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos told Movistar.

“It’s a shame we’ve got to this point. It’s true the coach asked him if he wanted to keep playing.

“Vinicius is a professional and said he wanted to keep helping the team, but we see that we can’t do anything.”

Valencia striker Justin Kluivert apologized to Vinicius on behalf of his club.

“I apologize from us, all of Valencia because this is not football. It’s very bad,” he told Movistar.

The delay led to 10 minutes being added on at the end, with Giorgi Mamardashvili producing a stunning save to deny Fede Valverde.

The Valencia goalkeeper then made another spectacular stop to tip Toni Kroos’s free-kick over the bar.

Players from both sides ended up in a brawl in stoppage time which ended with a red card for Vinicius for lashing out at Duro with his arm.

Vinicius left the pitch making a gesture with his hands indicating Valencia was heading down to Spain’s second division.