The clasico of consecration for Karim Benzema? The one everyone is waiting for on Monday evening to receive the Ballon d’Or was present this afternoon at the Santiago Bernabeu in Real Madrid’s victory against FC Barcelona (3-1). The Madrid number 9 started his meeting perfectly by opening the scoring in the 12th minute. In surface fox, “KB9” recovered a ball pushed back by Ter Stegen after a face-to-face against Vinicius Junior, before pushing it into the back of the net despite three defenders on the line. At the same time, he became the 7th top scorer in La Liga history with 223 goals for Real Madrid.
Aligned as always at the forefront of the attack of a surgical Real Madrid, the French international witnessed, in the 35th minute, in the front row, the missile from Federico Valverde, who ended his race in the small right net of a once again powerless Marc-André Ter Stegen. Despite 38% possession of the ball, Benzema and his teammates joined the locker room at half-time with a very favorable score (2-0) thanks in particular to a big miss from Robert Lewandowski, alone against the empty goal.
Like the first half, the second started with a bang for La Liga’s top scorer of last season. Upon receiving a cross from Vinicius, the number 10 of the Blues transplanted in the axis before sending a superb flat left foot out of reach of the Barcelona goalkeeper … Before being signaled offside at the start of the match. ‘stock.
Benzema then participated alongside the other French holders, Ferland Mendy and Aurélien Tchouameni, in the show of force of the people of Madrid. With the help of maestros Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, the new leaders of La Liga sent the Santiago Bernabeu to their feet with ‘olé, olé’ resounding throughout the stadium.
A standing ovation
FC Barcelona waited until the 74th minute to react, with a penalty not whistled after a potential foul by Dani Carvajal on Robert Lewandowski. Ten minutes later, Ferran Torres pushed into the back of the net (2-1) a cross at the far post from Ansu Fati, extended by the former Bayern Munich striker.
In a tense end to the game, and just after Ansu Fati came within centimeters of the equaliser, the Santiago Bernabeu still took the time to get up to give Karim Benzema a standing ovation when he left in the 88th minute. It was from the bench that the big favorite for the future Ballon d’Or witnessed Rodrygo’s winning goal from a penalty (92nd).
With this victory, Real Madrid alone takes the lead in the Spanish championship with a three-point lead over its evening rival. For FC Barcelona, it’s a bitter defeat after a draw (3-3) against Inter Milan in midweek, seriously compromising their qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
But the big winner of the day is inevitably Karim Benzema, who was praised by his teammate Aurélien Tchouameni after the meeting: “I think he will win tomorrow. He had an exceptional season and he continues to show his qualities today. His coach Carlo Ancelotti also had a few words for him: “He played very well today. If he wins [le Ballon d’or], we’re going to party. “Answer Monday evening.