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Karim Benzema is the current Ballon d’Or winner, the key player for Real Madrid to win the league and European Cup last season, but this course is going very differently for him. And Carlo Ancelotti’s goal in this second part of the season is to recover it so that Real Madrid can repeat the successes achieved last season.
Injuries have barely allowed him to enjoy the first part of the season. On 2 November he played his last match for Real Madrid, minutes into the second half against weak Celtic from Glasgow in the last match of the Champions League group stage.
The Frenchman missed eleven games in the first part of the season, where his main objective seemed to be to arrive in top form at the World Cup, which ended up being a disaster for the French forward. A muscle injury forced the French manager, Didier Deschamps, to fly him back to Spain before the start of the season. Although he has recovered and has not been replaced on the list, he has no longer claimed for the decisive matches.
The proof of Karim’s recovery is that he played in the last friendlies played by Real Madrid so that footballers who weren’t at the World Cup could keep fit. The last one, this week against Getafe.
Karim’s season was not the best, although he scored six goals in twelve games played, but He always had his coach’s defense. Ancelotti defended him when there were doubts about his commitment to the Madrid club and was accused of thinking more about the World Cup.
“Whoever says it was canceled I don’t believe it, it’s nonsense. He had a problem, it wasn’t serious, he didn’t stop, he trained individually and the sensations aren’t good. The first loser is Karim who goes to a Ballon d’Or World Cup with just a few minutes left in his legs», said the blue coach in the first days of November.
Benzema’s injuries along the way were all musculars, although they have not always been detected as lesions. On other occasions, the club has spoken of muscle fatigue to explain the absence from various first-team call-ups.
Far away are the 44 goals scored last season in 46 games. He missed just nine games en route through injury and another due to Carlo Ancelotti’s decision, which gave him rest against Atlético de Madrid when the Madrileños were already league champions and also preparing to win the Champions League in Paris against Liverpool.
Benzema has already turned 35, he did it on the 19th, just one day after the end of the World Cup, but his performance has not yet begun to show the weight of age. Ancelotti hopes that the preseason he has had since he completed his recovery will help him give his all in the decisive stretch of the season. He also has the motivation to prove to Deschamps that he was wrong not to count on him during the World Cup.
Ancelotti and Real Madrid want him to be as decisive as the previous year and if he has to dose it he is convinced there will be no problems.. The French striker has only one specific substitute in his squad, Mariano, even if he has never counted much for Ancelotti or for the previous coaches.
The Spanish-Dominican striker has featured in just four of the 21 games Real Madrid have played this season. And in none of them he played more than eleven minutes. Ancelotti has always preferred to deploy Rodrygo in attack in Karim’s absence. Although the Brazilian has only scored four goals this season, in which he has only missed two games.
That’s why Benzema is so needed by Real Madrid. And that’s why Ancelotti makes every effort to make sure he’s in the best conditions to face the last phase of the season in which Real Madrid will play for the titles. Last season he scored ten Champions League goals starting in the round of 16. This is the Karim they expect.
