Athletic has reasons to reinforce the vigilance of its defenses tomorrow Benzema, because the final is a favorable scenario for the striker: he arrives at the best moment of his career, against the rival he is best at and in a competition where he usually stands out. The Frenchman has this season the best goalscoring average of his professional career (23 goals in 26 games, he scores a goal every 96 minutes, 0.88 per duel) and faces the rival that has historically been the best.
Athletic is the team that Benzema has scored the most goals against: 17 goals in 26 games against the Basque club. This course has not only maintained the good streak against Marcelino’s men, but has also improved it: three goals in the two league games they have played (the second round clash was brought forward, precisely because the two teams were participating in this Super Cup from Spain). In addition, Karim also wet the last time the two clubs met in this competition, scoring the madridista goal in the defeat against Bilbao last year at La Rosaleda (1-2). He has a better average against Granada (0.82 goals per duel), although he has scored fewer goals (14 in 17 games).
As for his performances in the Spanish Super Cup, Benzema usually feels comfortable, because he has four goals in 10 games, with the added value that three of them (all except the one he achieved against Athletic) have been against Barcelona. He arrives at this edition with the thorn in his side that he could not be in the last one that Madrid conquered, because he missed the 2020 edition due to injury (Jovic started in the semifinal and the final, against Valencia and Atlético, respectively ).
Since Cristiano left, Benzema has shown himself to be a very effective striker in the final meters, although that step forward in finishing has not prevented him from maintaining his good records in the associative game: this season he has distributed nine goal passes. A section in which Athletic is not his favorite rival, but that he is also good at: six assists against them (against the one he has distributed the most is Barcelona, with ten). In the Spanish Super Cup he adds three decisive shipments, all against Barcelona (the last one last Wednesday).