With him, words sometimes fail.
The exceptional even tends to become normalized.
Superlatives abound and collide.
A few months before the awarding of the Golden Ball, Karim Benzema sowed, this Friday evening against Denmark, an additional little gem on a path supposed to lead him, in majesty, next October 17 to the supreme individual reward.
Twenty-four years after Zinedine Zidane.
The model.
The confidant.
The big Brother.
Barely six minutes have passed since the break.
Orphan of his sidekick Kylian Mbappé, released due to pain in his left knee, the star of the Blues and Real decided to take matters into his own hands.
Right side, he starts by relying on Christopher Nkunku in the box.
In tune with his eldest, the "Titi" puts him back in the running with a delicious heel.
After a double contact and a hook to open wide the way to the goal, the Madrid player mystifies Schmeichel with a surgical left foot flat six meters!
Karim @Benzema's festival!!!
😱
🇫🇷1-0🇩🇰 |
#FRADAN |
#ProudofBleus pic.twitter.com/QJVFRJYZSX
– French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) June 3, 2022
A work of craftsmanship executed with astonishing mastery.
In line with a breathtaking season where he carried his club on his shoulders, contributing largely to the conquest of a 14th Champions League six days earlier, his 5th in a personal capacity, in this same Dionysian enclosure.
The figures click and challenge.
It is, neither more nor less, his 50th goal of the season, in all competitions.
To this dizzying total, we should add, icing on the cake, 16 assists.
Excuse a bit.
"For me, one of the most underrated players in history is Benzema.
He is incredible, recently enthralled Aleksander Ceferin, the boss of UEFA.
Now he's getting more and more recognition, but he's always been in someone's shadow.
It's amazing how this footballer can score goals, finding a way, even when it seems impossible to score.
»
Outstanding competitor, he hates defeat
A year after his recall to the selection for Euro 2021, the former Lyonnais, now 34, continues his little superman way.
From one foot to the other, from one inspiration to another, he plays with disconcerting ease with the most hermetic defensive systems.
The Danes were no exception to the rule and came to lengthen the list of his victims.
In the first period, they have already been reduced to the rank of simple cones on a flash from number 19 of the Blues.
We rewind this action to be broadcast on a loop in football schools.
The native Lyon gratifies us with a superb number of soloist and has fun with a good part of the Danish defense.
He then shifts Kanté to the right who centers back towards his attacker.
The resumption of the right of the latter is rejected by Schmeichel.
In the end, however, disappointment will prevail at El Nueve, as they call him at the Bernabeu.
Because this outstanding competitor hates defeat.
And his brilliant action will not be enough to water down his frustration linked to this negative result.
The other false note of the evening came from the premature defection of Mbappé.
But let us console ourselves.
Aborted, in club, due to the extension of Kylian Mbappé at PSG, the association of the Bondynois with Benzema will continue to benefit the only team of France for the months and, undoubtedly, the biennial to come.
Against the semi-finalists of the European Championship, we had to settle for crumbs.
However, it went at full speed during this first technical exchange between the two sidekicks in the axis.
After a one-two and a feint from the Parisian, the Madrid striker is shifted into the area and finds the opening.
But he is logically signaled in an offside position.
It may just be a postponement.
