Karim Benzema scored a superb second-half hat-trick as Real Madrid produced a stirring fightback at a raucous Bernabeu to reach the Champions League quarter-finals at the expense of Paris St-Germain.Kylian Mbappe scored a first-half goal to give PSG a 2-0 lead on aggregate, following his stoppage-time winner in the first leg, but the Benzema-inspired Real Madrid came back in the second 45 minutes to flip the tie on its head.
The French forward, who received a warm reception from the Bernabeu crowd, forced Courtois into two low saves inside the opening 13 minutes, and then Neymar had an attempt that was comfortably dealt with almost 10 minutes later.
A surge of acceleration also saw him burst past Real’s Eder Militao and only a brilliant covering challenge from David Alaba prevented him from adding to his tally.
Five minutes later, though, PSG took the lead. Having won the ball back inside their own half, Neymar played a first-time ball in behind the Real Madrid defence for Mbappe, who sized up David Alaba and then made it look like he was going towards the far post, but instead he went near and beat Courtois. That made it 1-0 to PSG and 2-0 on aggregate.
There was a feeling around the Bernabeu going into the half-time break that perhaps the tie was now beyond Real Madrid, and that was the same in the early part of the second half, too. In fact, Mbappe even scored another goal in the 54th minute, taking the ball around Courtois before firing into the empty net, but he was a yard or so offside.
The hope around the Bernabeu was returning after that goal, and 15 minutes later Benzema scored again. The excellent Luka Modric won the ball back on the edge of his own box and launched a one-man counter-attack, getting past several PSGplayers before picking out Vinicius, who quickly gave it back to the Croatian. Modrichad the awareness to then find Benzema, whose shot deflected off of Marquinhos and went past Donnarumma. Suddenly, Real Madrid were 2-1 ahead on the night and had drawn the tie level.
Los Blancos managed to see off some late pressure by PSG, but in truth the Parisians had already lost mentally. Benzema has one again shown his talent to the world on what is another memorable European night for Real Madrid.
