Karim Benzema spoke for the first time about his tense relationship with Marcelo Gallardo
.
The one that originated after the former River coach marginalized the Frenchman from the preseason of Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, as punishment for the apparent lack of commitment of the 36-year-old forward at the beginning of the year, who arrived several days later of the scheduled date.
The French forward started for the second time this year and scored a goal against, although he also gave an assist, in his team's agonizing qualification to the quarterfinals of the Asian Champions, after beating Navbahor of 2-1. Uzbekistan.
“I have no problem with coach Gallardo and everything that has been written is a lie
,” said the former Real Madrid.
On the other hand, he denied the rumors that link him with
Olympique Lyon
and
Chelsea
to return to the Old Continent:
“Everything that says that I want to go to Europe in winter is a lie
. ”
In the next round, Al-Ittihad will face Al Hilal, a team full of stars, such as the Brazilian star Neymar, the Moroccan goalkeeper Bono, the Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly and the Portuguese Rubén Neves, among others.
The blooper that Benzema starred in against Navbahor
25 minutes had passed in the second leg of the series, which had started with a 0-0 away score and with the left foot, because striker Karim Benzema himself made an unfortunate action and scored the Uzbek team's goal into his own goal.
What happened was the result of an attempt to clear a cross by the Frenchman, who finally ended up heading the ball into his own goal and giving Navbahor the lead.
🇸🇦⁉️ Opinions on this GOAL AGAINST Karim Benzema in the Asian Champions?
pic.twitter.com/4JTt4tUB1U
— JS (@juegosimple__) February 22, 2024
Fortunately for Benzema, his team was able to reverse the result thanks to goals from Abderrazak Hamdallah and Toma Tabatadze (with an unusual goal against) to decree their passage to the next round of the Champions League on the Asian continent.