Less impactful than usual, the striker with golden feet Karim Benzema ended his rich and endless season with an erased performance once morest Croatia (1-0 defeat), Monday in Saint-Denis, as wrung out by the sequence of matches.
Holder and scorer once morest Denmark (2-1 defeat), rested in Split (1-1) to spare his tired body, the Real Madrid striker played the entire game on Friday in Austria (1-1 ) before going on to a second tenure three days later at the Stade de France.
Didier Deschamps had planned to spare his favorite center-forward in Vienna, but he admitted having left him on the lawn until the final whistle because of the score that had been unfavorable to the Blues for a long time. In Saint-Denis, the ex-Lyonnais once more played the entirety of a badly started duel once morest the Croats who led from the fifth minute …
– 56 matches this season –
Logically, “KB9” sometimes seemed to stick out its tongue when lowering the curtain of an ultra-busy season, pushing its personal counter to 56 matches: in detail 46 with Real, 10 with the Blues.
He ran out of juice on a launch from Boubacar Kamara (35th), threw a pass for Christopher Nkunku in the wrong tempo (45th), ill-adjusted a throw-in for the Leipzig striker (56th) and failed to straighten his ball following an incursion into the Croatian area (61st).
The “king” of Real Madrid has not missed everything, far from it, and he has once more shown himself to be determined in his stalls, most often skilful in his deviations and skilful with the ball at his feet. In the 54th minute, he offered a giant slalom in front of Ivica Ivušić’s goal, before being caught.
The NK Osijek goalkeeper can boast of being one of the few goalkeepers to have resisted Benzema this season, credited with 50 goals in all competitions, club and selection.
The 34-year-old striker carried his Real Madrid to the Champions League final, won at the same Stade de France once morest Liverpool on May 28, with capital performances once morest Paris SG, Chelsea and Manchester City, which he crunched with a fierce appetite.
– Messi dubs him –
With the France team, the ex-ban converted his surprise return a year ago into lasting success, culminating in the title acquired in the fall in the League of Nations.
The N.19 ends his season on two matches without scoring, a mini-series that he did not know in the tricolor jersey during this exercise, he who had scored in his five previous selections. He will seek to revive his counter, blocked at 37 goals (in 97 selections), at the start of the international season in September.
This lack of efficiency at the end of the race does nothing to diminish the glorious marathon of Madrid, placed in a very good position in the shortlist of contenders for the Ballon d’Or 2022.
With his seven awards under his arm, specialist Lionel Messi also gave him a decisive pass: “It is very clear that Benzema had a spectacular year and that he ended it in a grand way” with the C1. “This year there is no doubt for me,” added the Argentine.
