Benzema helps Real Madrid beat Alavés 4-1 with his double goal

Benzema helps Real Madrid beat Alavés 4-1 with his double goal.

Karim Benzema picked up where he left off last season by scoring two goals for Real Madrid to win 4-1 against Alavés in their first game of the LaLiga campaign.

Real Madrid had an uninspiring first-half in Carlo Ancelotti’s first league game since taking over the club for the second time, but Benzema calmed his nerves by throwing the ball into the net in the 48th minute after Eden Hazard hit him. One play.

Defender Nacho Fernández increased Real’s lead eight minutes later, sliding to stab a Luka Modric ball into the net from close range.

Benzema scored a second goal in the 62nd, but moments later Alavés shot a goal when forward Joselu scored a penalty after a foul by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Substitute Vinicius Jr added a final goal for the visitors in injury time, scoring with a nosedive header as he found a cross from rookie David Alaba.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jKlrku6ktc

French striker Benzema was Real Madrid’s most outstanding player last season with 23 league goals, more than a third of the team’s goals, and his form earned him a call-up to the France team for the first time in six years. .

Ancelotti marveled at Benzema’s performance and said he was a better player than when he coached him at Real between 2013 and 2015, when the Frenchman was more of a supporting striker for Cristiano Ronaldo.

“Calling Benzema just a striker doesn’t do him justice. He is a very complete player, much more complete than five years ago ”, said the Italian coach.

“He is the one who finishes off our plays but he also reads the game very well.

The Italian also criticized his team for their slow start, but was satisfied with the way they improved after half time.

“The first half we were a bit slow when we had the ball and when we didn’t have it, we needed to push harder, the game was slow and that was not what we wanted,” he added.

“But we were much better in the second half, we showed more intensity and we had more quality.” Real played in front of the fans for the first time in a league game since March 2020, although fewer than 4,000 spectators were able to enter Alavés. Mendizorrotza Stadium due to local government coronavirus restrictions.

The few fans present were on the verge of receiving an early award when midfielder Pere Pons lunged for a loose ball inside the area but was unable to keep his shot below the crossbar.

Alavés also appealed a penalty in the first half against Real Madrid’s Lucas Vázquez when he blocked a cross, although the referee rightly ruled that the ball had hit him in the chest and not in the arm.

Madrid lined up with a three forwards by Benzema, Hazard and Gareth Bale, who returned to LaLiga after spending last season on loan at Tottenham Hotspur.

Hazard has barely gotten going in his two seasons with Real, but he looked good, while Bale had a couple of attempts on goal without causing too much trouble for goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco.

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