The Spanish and French newspapers are full of praise for Karim Benzema’s performance against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening. The Royal started with a 1-0 deficit from the first game at the return and again ran into problems due to Kylian Mbappé, who brought PSG to a comfortable 0-1 halftime. Almost out of the blue, Real Madrid hit back via Benzema after the break: The 34-year-old attacker made three in a row and shot the Spaniards to the last eight in the Champions League: 3-1.
“This is Madrid!!!”, writes marca in big letters on the front page. “Karim Benzema was already part of Real Madrid’s history. But now he is a legend. Years later, people will still remember the striker’s hat-trick against Paris Saint-Germain. He scored one goal after the other in twenty minutes. Yes, Benzema is more than Cristiano. He will never score as many goals as he does. But he’s more of a Madridista than the Portuguese. He never asked for a raise. He has never asked for a contract extension and he has faced more criticism than anyone.”
“An indelible performance with which he also passed Alfredo di Stéfano in the top scorer ranking of the club: 309 against 308 goals,” he said. el Pais on. “Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul are ahead of him. 34 years old, forgiven by the French national team, the striker definitely wrote himself with capital letters in the history books of Madrid.” Also ASH raved about Benzema. “He showed Mbappe that you still have to wear white to be the real number one in the world. Bernabéu reminded the PSG megamillionaires that sheikh dollars, oil and money in abundance don’t make you better, only richer.”
“Punched by the king”, writes the French sports newspaper L’Equipe about Benzema. “The hat-trick of Karim Benzema, in a state of grace, cannot explain everything. Mentally, PSG players failed miserably, not for the first time. The same bankruptcy, the same nightmare, the same landslide, the same absolute shipwreck as soon as the storm came up and the great, immense Karim Benzema arose: this is no longer an accident, this is a culture,” the newspaper refers to the defeat to Barcelona five years ago.