“H
eislikea
fine wine,”
Real Madrid
boss Carlo
Ancelotti
beamed
in the
Champions League post-match
press conference at Stamford Bridge.
“Every day he is getting better, showing
more leadership and he has so much
personality. He knows how important
aplayerheisforus.”
Ancelotti could have been speaking
of any number of the superstars in his
squad, from the midfield core of Luka
Modric and Toni Kroos – so crucial
in the four Champions League titles
between 2014 and 2018 – to the
thrilling 21-year-old Brazilian Vinicius
Junior, who has emerged as a vital
difference-maker this season.
Yet Ancelotti was hailing the player
whom he is compelled to praise after
almost every single game, a player
he described as “magic” only weeks
earlier after a similarly devastating
game-defining spell. Karim Benzema
had just netted a spectacular hat-trick
against Chelsea within a 25-minute
spell of play, a period which ultimately
proved decisive in an exhilarating
Champions League quarter-final tie.
In the previous round, with the
Spanish titans on the brink of
elimination against French giants
Paris Saint-Germain – trailing 2-0
on aggregate with just 30 minutes of
play remaining – Benzema scored a
goal out of nothing. The Frenchman’s
pressing forced a dawdling Gianluigi
Donnarumma into surrendering
possession inside his own area, with
Benzema ultimately finding the net.
Fifteen minutes later, Benzema
scored again. Then, practically straight
from the beleaguered visitors’ kick-off,
he completed a stunning hat-trick.
The back-to-back Champions League
trebles against the Parisians and the
defending European champions –
against whom Benzema scored the
winner in extra-time of the second
leg – were completed within a sum
total of 75 minutes of play.
That is the thing with the France
striker; he smells blood. Benzema’s
hassling of Donnarumma mirrored
a mistake by Chelsea goalkeeperEdouard Mendy for his third at
Stamford Bridge – the Senegalese,
under pressure from the striker, saw
his pass go astray and leave a virtually
open net. The unfortunate Liverpool
goalkeeper Loris Karius is unlikely to
ever be forgotten for his high profile
error in the 2018 Champions League
final, yet it less well-remembered that
it was Benzema whose running had
prompted the mistake.
Benzema is a striker who ticks all
the boxes and whose all-round game is
as good as any; capable of power and
accuracy with either foot and imperious
in the air, as Chelsea found out with his
two stunning headed goals in West
London. Strongest when playing off the
shoulders of the last defender, he has
always been the master of finding and
creating space in which he can inflictpain on the opposition and whose game
has constantly evolved throughout his
glittering career.
Now aged 34, Benzema’s career
can be divided into three very clear
stages. The first was his spell as a
teenage wonderkid at Lyon, where he
debuted as a17-year-old and almost
instantly established himself as a star.
His self-belief and drive were evident
when telling his team-mates, who were
in the midst of romping home to seven
successive Ligue1 titles: “Do not laugh,
Iamheretotakeyourplace.”
The second stage was the first nine
years of his stint at Real Madrid, playing
primarily as a foil to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Both players arrived in the Spanish
capital in the summer of 2009 and
wouldgoontoformkeycomponents
of a fearsome attacking unit that wonKarim Benzema
The France and Real Madrid striker is in the form of his life
Headliners
Jubilant...Benzema
celebrates scoring
against Chelsea in
the quarter-finals