Breakthrough season
In 2007–08 season, team players Florent Malouda, John Carew, and Sylvain Wiltord have all departed from the club. With that outgoing of players, Benzema moved to the number 10 shirt from 19 and was given the lead striker role. He played very well as he scored 31 goals in 51 games. He ended the league with scoring of 20 goals. He scored four goals in the UEFA Champions League. He helped Lyon win their first ever double. One of his memorable performances was when he scored a hat-trick against Metz on 15 September, an equalizing goal in the 90th minute from a free kick against Derby du Rhône rivals Saint-Étienne, and a goal against RC Lens that was later nominated as the goal of the season by fans.
In the Champions League, he scored an important two goals which made Lyon the winner. The 3–0 win assured Lyon presence to the knockout rounds In the knockout rounds, Lyon faced Manchester United. Benzema continued to score; this time, he scored one goal that resulted in 1–1 draw and United eventually won the tie 1–2 on aggregate. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and players acknowledged Benzema for his performance.
Karim commented after a match:
“It’s a compliment to be compared to Zinedine Zidane, but we are different players.”
On 13 March 2008, Benzema renewed his contract with Lyon by one year extension. This made him one of the highest paid footballers in France. He was named the Ligue 1 Player of the Year, selected to the Team of the Year. He was awarded the Trophée du Meilleur Buteur for being the league’s top scorer. Karim was nominated by the French magazine France Football for the 2008 Ballon d’Or award, but was won by Cristiano Ronaldo.
REAL MADRID
2010–11 season
In 2010–11 season, Benzema moved to the number nine shirt as Real Madrid was under the supervision of new manager José Mourinho. Mourinho declared to the reporters “Benzema must understand that he is extremely talented, but that in itself is not enough”, “Madrid needs a striker who is sparky, not one that is listless”, he added. Moreover, France national team coach Laurent Blanc acknowledged that Benzema was “not used to working”. Blanc also commented that the striker needed to lose weight in order to fulfill his potential.
Benzema began the campaign as a substitute. After the September international break, Benzema played in a match resulted in a 1–0 win over Osasuna. On 21 September, In another appearance as a substitute, he scored his first goal of the season in a 3–0 home win against Espanyol. But after this, he was not able to score a single goal for nearly at least two months. The striker has provided assist on goals in two consecutive weeks against Hércules in the league and Milan in the Champions League.
He scored his second goal of the campaign on 10 November against Real Murcia in the 2010–11 edition of the Copa del Rey. In late November, Benzema was entered into the starting eleven due to severe back injury to Higuaín. He scored his first goal in his very first match entering as first eleven, he scored his first Champions League goal against Dutch. In Madrid, he scored his first hat-trick for the club; this match resulted in a 4-0 win for his team. The first goal he scored was Real Madrid’s 300th goal in the Champions League era.
Two weeks later, Benzema struck yet another hat trick, this time in an 8–0 win over Levante in the Copa del Rey. In the team’s first fixture of the 2011 calendar year, he assisted on the game-winning goal scored by Ronaldo in a 3–2 win over Getafe. On 23 January, he scored the only goal in a 1–0 win at home against Mallorca. Three days later, Benzema again scored the only goal of the match, resulted in a win over Sevilla.
Benzema was unused in two consecutive league matches in February 2011 due to arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor. His return was remarkable as he scored ten goals out eight matches. Included in those ten goals were doubles in three straight matches against Málaga. He scored his 100th goal of his professional career was against his hometown club; however, Benzema did not celebrate that goal because it was against his former club.
On 19 March, in an opening match of Real Madrid, he scored a goal that resulted in 2-1 win. Despite of his good form, Benzema appeared in only one of the four highly-anticipated matches against rivals Barcelona at the Champions League knockout stage. In this match, on 23 April 2011, Benzema scored a goal and helped on another in a 6–3 win over Valencia. On 30 April, he scored one goal in a team’s 3–2 loss to Real Zaragoza. At the close of the campaign, Benzema scored another double resulted in a 8–1 win over Almería. Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey.
At the close of campaign, Benzema was the second in the team just behind Ronaldo who scored 26 goals. His performances during the campaign, particularly during the second half were extraordinary. For this reason, he was praised by the club officials Florentino Perez, national team manager and Mourinho.
View the Original article
0 comments:
Post a Comment