On Wednesday, Real Madrid had one of the greatest comebacks in the Champions League when Karim Benzema scored a breathtaking hat-trick to eclipse Kylian Mbappe and knock out Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16. Three weeks ago, brilliant winner Kylian Mbappé gave Paris Saint-Germain the lead in Wednesday’s rematch against Barcelona rivals Real Madrid in Paris. Real Madrid was to be the latest casualty of another Kylian Mbappe masterclass after the 23-year-old managed the Spanish giant for the better part of an hour and scored a goal to give Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 lead on Wednesday and 2 : 0 overall. Karim Benzema answered another Kylian Mbappé goal with a hat-trick in less than 20 minutes in the second half. Real Madrid returned to beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 to advance to the Championship League quarter-finals. However, Real Madrid made a comeback when Karim Benzema capitalised on a mistake from Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and scored an unbelievable two goals in two minutes.
Paris Saint-Germain broke the deadlock in the 39th minute, with Neymar opening Mbappe away with a good ball for the first time, and the Frenchman made no mistake and sent Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois into the net at home. Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring in the first half to extend Paris Saint-Germain’s overall lead after the France striker also scored in injury time to seal a 1-0 first-leg win in Paris. The French superstar has been a significant talking point pre-match due to a kick to the left foot taken in training earlier this week and Real Madrid’s interest in signing him as a free agent this summer. And it lives up to the billing. One can hardly blame Kylian Mbappe’s goal for this, given that he scored both of PSG’s goals in both legs, putting PSG in an excellent position to move forward.
Real Madrid came out strong again after the break and was rewarded when PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma lingered on the ball before kicking the ball back to Vinicius. They stepped back for Karim Benzema to press him home after an hour. VAR verified that the second goal was in play. Just 12 seconds into the restart, Benzema scored a hat-trick after Paris Saint-Germain handed the ball to Real Madrid from a kick-off Vinicius to re-feed Benzema and score the decisive goal. It was a fantastic finish from Benzema as he was running inside the box to create space for himself just to score a goal from his outer boot into the right bottom corner of PSG’s goal. Donnarumma was surprised and did not even move to save the ball.
The oldest player scored a hat-trick, scoring all three goals with Real Madrid. A stunning comeback victory. With a 17-minute hat-trick, hero Karim Benzema became the 27th Real Madrid player to achieve 309 goals, and the 34-year-old also became the oldest player to score a Champions League hat-trick. Karim Benzema’s Champions League goals currently stand at 76, fourth all-time behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski. Robert Lewandowski also scored a Champions League hat-trick against Salzburg on Wednesday night. Karim Benzema scored three goals and overtook Alfredo Di Stefano to become the club’s third top scorer of all time, but the French striker insists he wants to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo and Raúl ahead of him.
