There is Neymar, there is Messi, there is Marquinhos, there is PSG, there is a comeback but the only thing that makes fans escape from the past is the new character Karim Benzema.
PSG seems to be very fortunate with comebacks where they are the victims. Since the defeat at Camp Nou in any year, the French giants have done everything to clean up the stain. What they do best is spend money, to bring back two of Barca's brightest stars, Neymar and Messi. However, nightmares still haunt the Parisians.
PSG has finished taking revenge and weakening Barca, but making them stronger is unlikely. The two superstars that PSG picked up from Barca all played very faintly in the great battle at the Bernabeu. Needless to say, both Neymar and Messi are just a background for Mbappe's juniors.
PSG is now living on Mbappe's breath. Before the match, the image of the 23-year-old striker falling in pain during practice made fans extremely worried. But then all were relieved when Mbappe still flew to Madrid, was named in the starting line-up and strode bravely on Real's mecca.
The first half witnessed Mbappe's monologue show. He did it all alone, plowing through the white shirt defense, threatening the Courtois goal, trampling the grass at the Bernabeu and scoring a goal true to his trademark. PSG's style of play becomes very simple, doing everything to get the ball to the "7" foot.
Mbappe even had an unofficial hat-trick against Real. Three times he scored Courtois's goal but twice the goal was disallowed for offside. Perhaps until the 60th minute, the equal part thought the match was over, when Mbappe made PSG too dominant.
Real's expected goal (xG) figure in the first half was only 0.31, and it all came from Benzema's 2 individual efforts. A cut from outside the box and a header that drives the ball. The "lazy cat" seems to be still wandering in his dreams, while his teammates are realistic and accept defeat.
Really, only dreamers can fly like Benzema. At the age when Vinicius had to call him "uncle", Benzema still chased the ball to the end, putting pressure on Donnarumma to make mistakes, thereby leading to a precious short goal like gold.
That was the turning point of both matches, Real's level was always there and only needed one explosive point to flush. No one else, it was Benzema who opened that bottleneck. Belief at this time returned to the Madrid people and they began to believe more in the fairy tale that "Lazy Cat" composed.
And when faith is in place, people can do extraordinary things. Benzema's next two goals were only 106 seconds apart. More specifically, from the moment PSG served the ball in the middle of the field to the third time it was picked up by the net, it was just... 12 seconds.
Benzema's flick in the net against Donnarumma for the third time is certainly unique to different people. Class is not enough, it takes a bit of "crazy" to shape the whole universe to your liking in that moment.
xG in the second half of Real was only 1.87 but they scored 3 goals, it shows the level of "irrational" in Benzema's handling phases, when the chances of scoring are not high. Naturally, everything has "help" from the mistakes of Donnarumma and Marquinhos. But without pressure from Benzema, would PSG's million-dollar superstars make mistakes?
Witnessing the explosive second half of Benzema, Rio Ferdinand admired: "He has had some magical nights in his career, but this is the performance of a lifetime, a hat-trick.
This is a clear split in two halves. In the first half, we sat here and talked passionately about Mbappe, the player who made the biggest impact, who deserved to inherit Ronaldo and Messi. But when the second half came, Benzema immediately said: "No, no, no, no, I'm still there guys. There's still someone else on the pitch you need to talk about" and then he scored a hat-trick.
Look at Modric, the older you get, the more precious a bottle of wine becomes. He is almost 37 years old, yet he still left behind masterpieces in the second half, the assist line for Benzema to score is unique.
But the hero here must be Benzema. I said before the game that we all know how good he is. For me, it's the most complete number 9. He did every task in the game brilliantly. Scoring is the hardest thing and Benzema has done it three times."
If you don't want to hear a former defender talk about a striker, listen to a famous former striker. "There's no denying Karim Benzema is one of the greatest number 9s of all time," Gary Lineker wrote on his personal page, speaking on behalf of millions of people.
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