2023-05-17 00:26:22
First leg of the Champions League semifinals last season. Etihad Stadium, minute 82. City beat 4-2 against Madrid, and thanks. The result is the least bad for the whites, and it will get even better. In that final moment of the game, Kroos was about to launch a free-kick, somewhat tilted to the right wing. Good opportunity for the whites, usually powerful in the air, but that won’t be where the word prize comes out. Laporte inexplicably pulls his arm out on purpose and hits the ball. Penalty without discussion. Golden opportunity for Madrid to make it 4-3 and leave with a result that can be traced back to the Bernabéu, a miracle according to the game seen.
«I tell myself, I do it now or I will never do it. It is a penalty to show the opponent that we have confidence. I do it because it is an important game and I know that it will stay in the minds of the people and the fans”, Benzema details about his launch, executed wonderfully along Doll. A moment in the history of Madrid and Karim, who, as he recounts well in the docuseries ‘Hasta el final’—which recalls the heroic story of the Fourteenth—has been in the retina of white fans ever since. One more genius of the many that Benzema exhibited during the Champions League last season. Something that this season is not being repeated and that, given the size of the rival and the 1-1 loss in the first leg, Madrid will need tonight to increase their chances of qualifying for the Champions League final: “The courage and personality in these games is important. It is a high-pressure game, and sometimes it takes away your quality if you don’t know how to handle it”, reflects Carletto.
It is not being an easy season for Benzema. His 35 years, the news in his private life, such as the arrival of a new girlfriend and a fourth child with this new love, and his various injuries, have made it impossible for Benzema to repeat a course like last season, but come D-day, Madrid needs Karim’s vitamin K more than ever. Few white fans imagine their team entering the final in Istanbul without the best version of their captain, who will be from the game, for sure. The rest, we’ll see. Ancelotti made him doubt yesterday: «What I said about Rudiger was a misunderstanding. I apologize. He thought he was talking about Rodrygo. We’ll see who plays. What is clear to me is that if we win the alignment correctly and if we don’t win, I will have been wrong.
lower records
This season, Benzema has 29 goals and six assists, numbers below the 44 goals and 15 assists he completed last year. Of that almost fifty goals from the 21-22 campaign, 33% were scored in the Champions League (15) and 66% of his goals in Europe (10) were made in the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals. All winning goals from matches against PSG, Chelsea and City, respectively, they carried the signature of Karim, also author of two hat-tricks, one in the round of 16 against the Parisians and another in the first leg of the quarterfinals against the Londoners. An exhibition rarely seen in the best club competition in the world, a situation that contrasts with his performance this season.
Karim has only scored four goals in the current Champions League, all of them in qualifying rounds, but it’s not just the number, less, but the weight of them. His two goals against Liverpool, in Anfield, they were 2-4 and 2-5. before they were Vinicius and Militao who turned the score around. In the second leg, with the tie practically resolved, he rounded off the aggregate (6-2) with the victory goal. The goal that really did have an impact on putting a game downhill was the 1-0 win against Chelsea in the first leg of the quarterfinals, played at the Bernabéu. Then, at Stamford Bridge and in the duel against City last week, Benzema did not see the goal. It is difficult to think that Madrid can eliminate City with a secondary role for the Frenchman.
As it also seems impossible that Guardiola’s team can get into the second Champions League final in its history with a match similar to that of the Bernabéu and an (almost) invisible Haaland. Guardiola is the first to know: “If you want to beat Madrid you have to have a game plan, adjust and change things, create more chances and get the ball to the forwards more often. We need to play better than at the Bernabéu and for that, we know what we have to do. We are going to change a couple of things to make the game more fluid, so that the players feel free,” Pep explained yesterday. Of that duel Benzema versus Haaland there will be a winner and, surely, a finalist. Waiting for Karim
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