Benzema as the monster of the Champions League play-offs. He has already scored 13 goals in his last 8 games

Karim Benzema is the best footballer for 2022, which he confirmed by winning the Ballon d’Or. And although he suffered a slight dip in form at the start of 2023, he showed in the Champions League play-offs that he is thoroughly enjoying the competition.

It all started with last year’s Champions League semi-final. Real Madrid lost the first leg to PSG 0:1, then lost the return leg 0:1 and needed three goals to advance.

That’s when captain Karim Benzema came on, scored a hat-trick in 17 minutes and pushed Real into the quarter-finals. It was in this match that Benzema’s killer aura was born, which he then went on to keep in the Champions League.

In the quarter-finals, Real took on Chelsea and Benzema flashed another hat-trick at Stamford Bridge. In the rematch, the game went into extra time, with, you guessed it, Benzema scoring the winning goal.

And so it came to the semi-finals, where Los Blancos faced Manchester City. Although in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium the Citizens clearly had the upper hand and could have won by a much bigger margin, Real somehow managed to pull off an acceptable 3:4 result.

And Benzema scored twice again. The first time he placed Mendy’s left-footed centre to the bar from the penalty spot, and the second he added a penalty in the style of Antonin Panenka. In the rematch, the game went into extra time again and again it was none other than Karim Benzema who decided the game.

Only in the final against Liverpool did the Frenchman come up empty, although he did score a goal, but it was disallowed due to a disputed offside.

So he saved his goals against the Reds for this year’s eighth-final. In the first leg at Anfield Road he scored twice and contributed to the 5-2 win, but in the return leg at the Santiago Bernabéu he scored the only goal of the game.

Benzema has now scored 13 goals in his last 8 Champions League matches. All this in the play-offs of the most prestigious competition in the world and against the best teams in the world.

Source: UEFA