Thursday, March 28

An earthly Benzema | Today


Benzema laments during the game against Osasuna. / Javier Soriano (Afp)

Analysis

The French striker, who missed a penalty on his return against Osasuna, has not yet found his best version

Oscar Bellot

He has recorded four goals and one assist in seven games, records that would be signed by most of the strikers on the planet but which, in the case of the next Ballon d’Or, are the reflection of an earthly Benzema, very far from that superlative version that he offered last season and that was the main reason why Real Madrid reigned in the League and the Champions League. The Frenchman, who had been away from the pitch for almost a month, returned unsuccessfully in his team’s draw against Osasuna, the first blur for the Whites in a so far immaculate season that allowed Barça to take a surprise in the table and It should serve as a wake-up call for Carlo Ancelotti’s block, lacking energy and determination in the first half which, this time, was not enough with the final rush to pocket the three points.

The barrage of attackers with which Ancelotti tried to break the resistance of a numerically inferior Osasuna after the expulsion of David García in the 78th minute did not serve to unclog a thick Real Madrid that resented the absence of Modric, paid the usual toll derived from the stoppages of national teams, especially in a languid midfield beyond Kroos’s incisive changes of orientation, he was again penalized by the lack of defensive solidity and missed the traditional punch of his flagship.

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It was, of course, not a bad game for Benzema, especially considering that he had not worn shorts since last September 6. He teamed up, moved well across the offensive front and had several chances to unlock Sergio Herrera’s goal, a true black beast of the Lyon number ‘9’, but he ended up leaving the Santiago Bernabéu with a crooked nose after missing a penalty, the third consecutive against Miranda de Ebro’s goalkeeper, which could have served to maintain Real Madrid’s full triumph.

Osasuna resists at the Bernabéu and stops Real Madrid's winning streak

“We haven’t played at a very intense pace, but the game was under control and they deserved to win. With numerical superiority we have put centres, but they are comfortable there. There was no room for anything else. The game could have been fixed with the penalty”, Ancelotti assumed, who acknowledged at a press conference that he considered ordering another footballer to be in charge of executing the maximum penalty to prevent Sergio Herrera’s psychological warfare from affecting Benzema, but ended up keeping him as a pitcher out of respect for his stripes.

Losing streak from eleven meters

The truth is that Benzema does not drag a good dynamic from eleven meters. Bron’s striker has missed four of the last six penalties he has taken in the League, since the three missed against Sergio Herrera is joined by the one he missed against the then Celtic Matías Dituro on matchday 30 of the 2021-22 championship. The man from Lyon, who sent to the net the first 16 that he executed with the Real Madrid shirt, had only wasted three throughout his career, all of them with the elastic of the French team. But so far this year he has already counted five fiascos from the point of punishment, a series that he started on January 23 against Edgar Badía from Elche.

But, beyond the missed penalty in a match in which a goal was also annulled for a millimeter offside and caressed another with a fantastic shot at the service of Vinicius that did not take the door by centimeters, the first two months of competition confirm that Benzema is not at his optimal point of confidence. Although he scored in the European Super Cup, put the victory on track against Celta on the second day of the League and recorded a double against Espanyol on the third date of the championship that allowed Real Madrid to attack Cornellà at the horn, it is not being that ‘ killer’ that sowed devastation in its wake. Despite this, in the ‘white house’ they are sure that the ‘9’ will soon recover the edge and they trust that Wednesday’s duel against Shakhtar in the Champions League will help him regain sensations.

That clash will also be a new opportunity for Real Madrid to work on their defensive armor. The whites have not added a clean sheet in the first seven days of the League, a fact that contrasts with the six that Barça has accumulated and that is also out of tune with the good performance in that section by Ancelotti’s team in their first two rounds in the Champions, where Courtois, now in the dry dock, left his frame pristine against Celtic and Leipzig. The good news is that Modric, overcome the overload in the hip that dragged, trained this Monday with the group and points to Shakhtar.


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