Benzema has a free hand

The real Madrid He passed those of Cain to get into the semifinals of the European Cupbut finally he did it with a sweet defeat against Chelsea (2-3) which made last week’s victory in London good (1-3). Tuchel’s team went as far as 0-3 and flirted with the fourth goal, but Madrid turned around, sending the game into extra time with a volley by Rodrygo after Modric’s exquisite cross and, in extra time, He finished off the job by means of the beacon that guides the white designs in attack this season: Karim Benzema.

The French signed a discreet Party In General, It was difficult for him to influence Madrid’s game and he wasn’t very fine in attack either; and, with everything, he found the crossbar in a header and in the same way he found the 2-3, to Vinicius’ center after a good personal move by the Brazilian. Our daily goal for a Benzema who, this season, goes on target per game: he has 38 goals in as many duels.

Madrid’s pass to the semifinals paves the way for Benzema towards the highest individual distinction in football: the Ballon d’Or. It contributes to this that most of their theoretical rivals are already out of the dispute: Messi and Mbappé fell to Madrid at the Bernabéu, with Karim’s ‘hat-trick’, Cristiano also lost to Atleti, Haaland is out… and the last to join the club has been Robert Lewandowskiwhose Bayern lost in the quarterfinals against Villarreal, without a doubt the big surprise of the round that brings together the eight best of the Old Continent.

The Pole, with 47 goals in 41 games so far, was undoubtedly Benzema’s great opponent to fight for the award. But Bayern’s early elimination from the Champions League weighs heavily on their options: winning the German titles won’t be enough, especially if you play for Bayern. In Benzema’s favor there is also the change in the rules of the trophy, whose evaluation stage will end with the 2021-22 season; that is to say, the World Cup will count for the next Ballon d’Or, so the good performance of Benzema and Madrid both in the Champions League and in the League is more than enough argument.

At this point, there are two main opponents for Benzema in his fight for the Ballon d’Or: Salah and De Bruyne. Both are still alive in the Champions League, at least for now, and they are the mainstays on which their respective teams, Liverpool and Manchester City, rely. It will of course depend on the development of the rest of the competition, but the Belgian shines both in finishing and in creation (14 goals and eight assists) and the Egyptian is once again a seasoned scorer (28 goals so far).

Benzema, to by the record of Cristiano

What he will surely have at his fingertips is to finish as the top scorer in the Champions League; At the moment he is second, with 12 goals, surpassed only by Lewandowski, with 13. But the Pole will not play in Europe anymore and the Frenchman has two games ahead of him, which could be three. Cristiano’s record (17 goals in 2013-14) is complicated, but not impossible. Benzema goes headlong for the trophy, literally: He has headed four goals in the last five duels. His performance in the key rounds has been, without a doubt, superior to that of Lewandowski: he has scored seven goals between the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, no less.

What will surely end is as the best scorer in the League (he has 24 goals, ten more than the second, with 14: Vinicius, De Tomás, Juanmi and Ünal. And he hopes to raise the score this Sunday at the Sánchez Pizjuán, against Sevilla. His contest in the match is not certain, but from the club they hope that the physical problems with which he ended up against Chelsea will be nothing, simple annoyances that by Thursday, when Madrid returns to training, will already be corrected .