A smile spread across Rodrygo’s face. Next to the Valdebebas training ground, he talks about his Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema, the four-time European Cup winner 13 years older than “he always talks to me before matches” and “he helps us a lot, inside and out. off the field “. ”, Someone“ always tries to listen ”, when asked: What is the best advice he has ever given you? The answer is immediate. “To play ball,” Rodrygo replies. There is laughter, but it is good advice. “Every time I give him the ball, it goes well,” he says.
In the 96th minute of the semi-final against Manchester City, Rodrygo played the ball for Benzema, delivering the cross from which Real Madrid got the penalty that could put them in the Champions League final and secure another comeback. absurd. The Brazilian had scored two in one minute to take them into extra time and Benzema offered him the penalty to complete his hat-trick. “No, you have to take it, Karim,” Rodrygo replied. “Well, of course, after the season …” he said later.
It was the best thing I could have done. As for the season Benzema is doing, it’s hardly credible: no one has scored a Champions League campaign like this, maybe never.
Located in the far north of the Bernabeu, Rodrygo handing over the ball and responsibility, Benzema scored as much as he had done in Manchester, where he had sunk in a Panenka, a brave but carefully prepared response to having missed two penalties in seven minutes. at Osasuna six days earlier. He scored in the 82nd minute to make it 4-3 for City, which had given Madrid hope for the return leg. “Let’s do something magical: we will win,” Benzema had promised. Now he could make sure they did, the place went wild when he scored, which they knew he would.
A good tip: give the ball to Benzema. Even when he tries to give it to you. Which, of course, made him stand out from the crowd. That he offered the ball says a lot about him; that they had even come so far he owed him a great deal. In Manchester, Benzema had scored after half an hour with City 2-0, the match escaped them. Against Paris Saint Germain, at home, he lost 1-0, 2-0 overall, when he scored a hat-trick. Another hat-trick followed at Stamford Bridge. Then came the winner in the 96th minute of the return match against Chelsea. He now scored in the same minute against City.
It was his 15th goal in the Champions League this season, two of the record set by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013-14 when Benzema provided it. He has scored in all the knockout matches he has played – he was injured, was absent in Paris – and has scored 10 of Madrid’s 14 goals since the group stage. Three against PSG, three against City, four against Chelsea. He finished as the league’s top scorer on the 27th. Plus 12 assists. This season he has scored 44 goals in 45 games.
Karim Benzema’s goals have been key to Real Madrid’s progress against PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City this season. Photo: Alex Livesey / Danehouse / Getty Images
“There are no words to describe how he plays,” says Vinícius Júnior. “He’s a great, great player; he is my brother. “When Carlo Ancelotti was told that Madrid was dependent on Karim, he replied:” Yes. There is no problem in saying that we depend on Benzema; we cannot deny it. We depend on Benzema “That’s right. It’s a reality and a good thing. I’m happy to depend on a player like him.”
If you trust someone, let them be a man who not only plays on a higher plane right now, but seems to exist in one. “K9 is Superman,” tweeted former Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas. “K9 is Wolverine. K9 is the janitor of your building. K9 is your best friend. K9 is your grandmother. K9 is the parachute instructor with whom you throw yourself off a plane. K9 is your angel of K9 is God! “
Quick guide
The road to Paris
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Liverpool
Group B: Maximum points and few scares, as the set of Jurgen Klopp was confirmed at the head of the group with two days left. The 5-1 victory over Porto in their second match highlighted the gap and they finished 11 points ahead of second-placed Atlético de Madrid. An impromptu team beat Milan 2-1 at the San Siro in the last game.
Round of 16: Inter 0-2 Liverpool; Liverpool 0-1 Inter (Liverpool 2-1 overall victory). The final goals of Salah and Firmino got a famous victory and Inter could not recover enough at Anfield.
Quarterfinals: Benfica 1-3 Liverpool; Liverpool 3-3 Benfica (Liverpool overall 6-4 victory). Benfica came back late in the return leg, but Liverpool returned to work away from home.
Semifinal: Liverpool 2-0 Villarreal; Villarreal 2-3 Liverpool (Liverpool 5-2 overall victory). Halfway through the Ceramics Stadium the tie was unexpectedly tied. But Liverpool ignited the fire in the second half with goals from Fabinho, Diaz and Mané.
Real Madrid
Group D: The Moldovan FC Sheriff overcame the clash of the group stage by beating Real 2-1 at the Bernabeu. But Real won all other matches, including both against Inter and a 5-0 home win over Shakhtar Donetsk.
Round of 16: PSG 1-0 Real Madrid; Real Madrid 3-1 PSG (victory of Real 3-2 overall). A hat-trick from Benzema in the second half. An epic return when all seemed lost. And so it began.
Quarterfinals: Chelsea 1-3 Real Madrid; Real Madrid 2-3 Chelsea aet (victory of Real 5-4 overall). Benzema hat-trick in the first leg. Chelsea were going through 10 minutes of normal time to play the return match, but Rodrygo and then Benzema sent off the reigning champions.
Semifinal: Man City 4-3 Real Madrid; Real Madrid 3-1 Man City aet (victory of Real 6-5 overall). A tie for centuries. City won 3-1 at the Etihad and 1-0 at the Bernabeu, but Real came back both times. Two impressive goals from Rodrygo in the end brought the tie to extra time and Benzema’s penalty sealed what seemed inevitable at the time.
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Ahead of Alfredo Di Stéfano and Raúl, he is the second highest scorer in the history of Madrid. He has 323 goals from Madrid, after seven years without a penalty. Only Lionel Messi and Ronaldo have more goals in the Champions League. But it’s not just about goals. He is the best number 9 in the world, says Casemiro, but Ancelotti admitted that “calling him a striker doesn’t seem short to me”. Zinedine Zidane once said: “People talk about Karim as a pure number 9, a 9 and a half, a 10; to me, he is a bit of everything. ”
For years, in fact, it wasn’t about goals at all, the idea that he might end up at the top of those lists not really contemplated, even by him. The striker, who scored 11 goals in the league in 2016-17 and five in 2017-18, has been 21, 21, 23 and 27 since then. At least in part because I had to. Or maybe they were allowed to. Of course, 2018 was the year Ronaldo left, the man he had served. “I had this guy by my side who scored 50 in the season,” Benzema said. Of Ronaldo’s 457 goals, Benzema attended 47, and even that doesn’t really reflect his role as a facilitator.
“Karim is more complete than he was five years ago,” Ancelotti said after returning to Madrid last summer. The coach has thrown in the towel at times, running out of superlatives and not knowing what to say, if he can add something to it. “It’s like wine, better all the time, every year,” he said. Physically, Benzema is better than ever; emotionally too. There is confidence, calm, security in him, almost zen. “He is more of a leader, he feels more important and that makes a difference; he has more personality, ”says Ancelotti.
More recognition too, the goals that make a case for him, and that becomes self-perpetuating, the level that rises all the time. “The players who help to improve their teammates shine, and with a special light,” insisted the former Madrid coach Santiago Solari, in defense of his player, but the goals increase the dazzle. Ilkay Gündogan said: “In the past I was underestimated; he is now proving that his critics are wrong. For a long time he was in the shadow of Ronaldo, especially in the press, but now he is getting the attention he deserves. “
Luka Modric says: “I am happy for Karim. Now everyone else is realizing what we all know for a long time. It’s a pleasure to play with: his understanding, his movement, his ability to break opponents.
There has been a lot of talk about Benzema’s evolution as a striker, although it may not be so much about becoming a striker as adding that role to his game. Forget about being a center forward; Benzema is a footballer; he plays, and like no one else.
“For me, Karim has not changed anything, nothing,” Casemiro insists. “Now we are talking about him as the best 9 in the world, the Golden Ball. The only thing that has changed is their relationship with the goals. He is scoring more, but his understanding of the game, his day to day, his quality, his way of seeing the game, is the same. The only thing is that in other years it was Cristiano or others who scored ”.
Carlo Ancelotti says he has run out of superlatives to describe Karim Benzema. Photo: Tom Jenkins / The Guardian
One of the things that stands out about him is his ability to disappear, to slip away from the movement just to get back into it. More often than not, this allows him to offer the end, but this move he always had: understanding when to leave space and allowing others to benefit us so much Ronaldo, remains central to his game. “It’s very, very important: he scores more goals and we always try to look for him,” says Rodrygo. “But it’s also important for the band because it comes out and we can come in to try and score. It also gives a lot of assistance. He’s a great player. “
When asked to list the qualities that define Benzema, an opposition leader sends a brief profile, in vignettes:
An understanding of the game that few strikers have …