John Obi Mikel is adamant Jose Mourinho will know he's "f***ed up" by claiming Vinicius Jr incited the backlash which led to accusations from the Real Madrid star that he was racially abused.

The Spanish giants got the better of Mourinho's Benfica side in the first leg of their Champions League clash last week. The Brazilian claimed Gianluca Prestianni called him a "monkey" while covering his face. On Monday UEFA announced that the Benfica player has been given a provisional one-match ban, which rules him out of the second leg on Wednesday.

UEFA continues to investigate the allegation of racial abuse, which Prestianni has denied, but it could end with him facing a 10-match ban. Mourinho though has stood by his player, which has resulted in huge criticism.

He suggested Vinicius Jr had incited the crowd with his celebration after scoring the only goal of the match. The Special One said: "There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Every stadium that Vinicius plays [in] something happens. Always."

Mikel played under Mourinho in his two spells as Chelsea boss and believes the Benfica boss will later backtrack on his comments.

• Jose Mourinho in drastic decision before Real Madrid vs Benfica over racism saga

• New Vinicius Jr investigation opened as Real Madrid star subjected to more abuse

MAKE THE MIRROR YOUR FIRST CHOICE! Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings

He said on his Obi One Podcast: "What I expected to hear from my old boss, from my gaffer [was] 'Yes it is under investigation, but there is not place for racism there, there is no place for such thing, but let’s wait until it is concluded, there is no place for that'.

"So for him to come out and say 'Oh yeah, Vinicius Jr shouldn’t have celebrated the way he did', that was a clumsy, clumsy comment from Jose Mourinho. He will be the first, he knows, he will be the first to know 'I’ve f***ed up here'. He is a smart, smart guy, a very smart guy, he knows."

Mikel added: "I don’t know the reason why he hasn’t apologised, but I expect him to come out at some point and make a statement. There is nobody who has played with Jose Mourinho that has a bad word to say about him, especially when it comes to racism, especially, zero, absolutely zero.

"He will be the first to say 'I f***ed up, it was after the game, emotions were running high, I didn’t think about my statement, I didn’t think about what I was going to say.' He is an experienced manager, he is a smart guy, he knows what he should have said. The statement that he made is a massive, massive, huge mistake."

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.