Real Madrid’s Spanish captain, French international Karim Benzema, turned the table on his compatriot Paris Saint-Germain and led the royal club to the Champions League quarter-finals, by scoring a hat-trick in 17 minutes (3-1) on Wednesday at the “Santiago Bernabeu” stadium in the second leg. Final price.
Saint-Germain was on his way to easily reserve his ticket to the quarter-finals when he imposed his advantage over the course of the first half and settled it with a goal for his star Kylian Mbappe, who is nominated to move to the Royal Club next summer in a free deal (39), consolidating his club’s progress with the goal of the first leg, but the record holder in The number of titles in the competition (13) was hit hard in the second half thanks to a hat-trick of its leader Benzema in the 61st, 76th and 78th minutes.
Benzema raised his goals in the competition this season to eight, to 79 in fourth place in its history, and to 309 goals in the colors of the Royal Club to surpass the late Alfredo Di Stefano in third place on the list of Meringue’s historical scorers.
It is the second time that Real Madrid has left Paris Saint-Germain out of the final price of the competition, after the first in the 2017-2018 season, when it won 3-1 in the first leg and 2-1 in it and continued his career until he won the third title in a row and the 13th in its history led by his former French coach Zinedine. Zidane.
The Royal Club responded by considering its loss to the French team in the group stage of the 2018-2019 season, when it fell 3-0 in the first leg in Paris, before it drew 2-2 at home.
The Royal Club presented a wonderful second half that erased the bad image that appeared in the first leg in Paris (0-1) and the first half in today’s match, where many opportunities for its guest to score more than one goal were it not for the brilliance of its international goalkeeper, Belgian Thibaut Courtois.
The two substitutions made by Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti in the 57th minute, with the participation of Frenchman Eduardo Camavinga, Brazilian Rodrigo, replacing German Toni Kroos and Marco Asensio, played a major role in turning the table on the visitors, because his team improved a lot and managed to score a hat-trick in 17 minutes.
Italian international goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made a fatal mistake in dispersing the ball, so that the royal club took advantage of it to equalize, before the attacking tide continued for the owners of the land, who added two goals that were enough to reach the quarter-finals.
On the other hand, Saint-Germain stars and their Argentine coach, Mauricio Pochettino, failed to show any reaction in the second half, except for a direct free kick by Argentine star Lionel Messi over the crossbar in overtime.
