Otamendi flaunts World Cup tattoo to wind up Vinicius in Benfica-Madrid clash
The Argentine defender showed off his Qatar 2022 trophy ink to the Brazilian star during a heated Champions League encounter at the Estádio da Luz.
Tensions flared between Nicolás Otamendi and Vinícius Júnior as the Argentine defender resorted to some proper psychological warfare during Real Madrid’s Champions League clash with Benfica.
World Cup wounds reopened
In the dying minutes of the match at the Estádio da Luz, cameras caught Benfica captain Otamendi approaching Vinícius during a corner kick with a rather cheeky bit of provocation. The former Manchester City man lifted his shirt to reveal his chest tattoo of the World Cup trophy that Argentina won in Qatar 2022.
Lip readers caught Otamendi’s follow-up taunt as he told Vinícius: “Esa es mía” (“That’s mine”), twisting the knife into the Brazilian star who suffered quarter-final heartbreak with the Seleção in that same tournament.
Not their first rodeo
This wasn’t the first bit of needle between the pair during the match. About half an hour earlier:
- Otamendi was among several Benfica players who took issue with Vinícius celebrating his goal
- The same sequence apparently led to the activation of anti-racism protocols
- The Argentine clearly had Brazil’s Qatar elimination on his mind all evening
Growing tensions
The incident adds another chapter to the sometimes fraught relationship between Argentine and Brazilian players in European competition. With the South American rivals’ historic football rivalry now regularly playing out in Champions League encounters, these personal duels have become increasingly common.
Otamendi, who’s no stranger to the dark arts after years in the Premier League, clearly knows which buttons to press. For Vinícius, who’s had to deal with far worse provocations in his career, this was likely water off a duck’s back - though the timing of the gesture during a high-stakes European night shows how personal these rivalries can get.