Gala match in London between the defending champion, Chelsea, and the record holder of Champions League titles (13), Real Madrid. But one star shone more than the others on the lawn of Stamford Bridge: Karim Benzema. The French striker of the Merengues splashed this quarter-final first leg of his class thanks to a hat-trick, Wednesday April 6. Winner 3-1, Real can already see the last four of the competition.
It’s not just the context of the conflict in Ukraine that is undermining Chelsea’s future. After the disqualification of its Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, and its forced sale whose selection process is underway, the London club saw its course in the Champions League darken by the fault of a Karim Benzema in the peak of his art.
At Stamford Bridge, the French striker was simply unstoppable, in all the right moves and at the conclusion of all of Real Madrid’s decisive moves. Barred in the semi-finals in this same stadium last season, the Spaniards took brilliant revenge even though Chelsea had decided to apply the same recipe by preventing the Merengues from bringing the ball out properly. The talents of the current La Liga leader perfectly foiled the plans of Thomas Tuchel.
The Blues did not take into account the first alert sent by Vinicius Jr. On a lost ball and a bright heel from Benzema, the Brazilian found the bar of Mendy (10th). Ten minutes later, the boss of the Madrid attack was responsible for executing the sentence himself. Thanks to his sense of the game and his technique, Benzema launched Vinicius Jr with the outside of his foot before whipping to place himself in the center, just where his partner returned the lift to him. The overpowered head of the French, under the bar, deceived Mendy and opened an already intense game (0-1, 21st).
10 – Karim Benzema is the 1st player in history to score 10+ goals in a single Champions League season and the 1st to do so in C1 since Just Fontaine in 1958/59 (10). King. pic.twitter.com/tkAsVl1OTh
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 6, 2022
Three minutes later, he did it again on a small ball in a touch from Modric. Unbalanced, Benzema placed his head out of reach of the Senegalese goalkeeper. Like PSG in the round of 16, Chelsea were on one knee because of a genius (0-2, 24th) who will not need to force his talent to score a hat-trick at the very start of the second half. that he had wasted gold ammunition before the break. The former Lyonnais took advantage this time of a too soft pass from Mendy towards Rüdiger. Benzema exploited this miss perfectly to score his 37th goal of the season, the thirteenth in his last seven games (1-3, 46th).
“These are magical nights, like the one against Paris SG at the Bernabéu“, savored Karim Benzema at the microphone of RMC Sports after the meeting. “We came to win, to show that we are Real Madrid. Things went smoothly for us, from the first minute to the last. When we have a Real like tonight, it’s easier for us. All goals are important. I’m happier to have put the third, because I missed one in the first period, and I was still thinking about this missed opportunity. We will do everything to win the return match which will be very important.“
This third goal broke the ambitions of the Blues who had managed to reduce the gap just before the end of the first half thanks to Kai Havertz, the man in the form of Tuchel (40th). Thibaut Courtois then took charge of extinguishing the last attempts of the Londoners, in particular a missile from César Azpilicueta (50th) while Romelu Lukaku, alone with a header (69th), and Mason Mount (70th) had lacked precision. The Belgian porter was also imperial on the attempts of Reece James (15th, 84th). On one side as on the other, the efficiency in the surface will have been decisive. Real Madrid were simply better armed with an outstanding gunner.