Football

UEFA Champions League: Karim Benzema seals the show with hat-trick to send PSG packing

By Aman Shukla

Karim Benzema scored a second-half hat-trick in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 match against PSG at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to help Real Madrid enter the quarterfinals of the competition. Trailing 0-1 from the first leg, Madrid were looking at the exit door as Kylian Mbappe added to his goal in Paris by scoring in the first half. But a blunder by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma opened the doors for Madrid as Benzema restored parity on the night to give Carlo Ancelotti’s team a glimmer of hope in the 61st minute.

Madrid were set to be the latest victims of another Mbappe masterclass at the Santiago Bernabeu after the 23-year-old ran them ragged for the best part of an hour and fired in to put PSG 1-0 up on the night, 2-0 ahead on aggregate.

But Madrid came storming back as Benzema capitalised on a mistake by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and afterward scored an amazing double in two minutes, the third coming just eight seconds after PSG had kicked off.

At the point when the full-time whistle affirmed their 3-2 aggregate win, many of Madrid’s players dropped to their knees and looked up to the sky, as much perhaps in disbelief as joy, in the wake of completing one of the most memorable turnarounds in the club’s recent history.

 

 

Aman Shukla

Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication. A media enthusiast who has a stronghold on communication, content writing, and copy writing. Aman is currently working as a subeditor at dailyindianews.com and can be reached at [email protected]