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44 goals in 44 games. A dream season for Benzema, who makes the Bernabéu stand up after scoring against Levante to sing “Golden Ball, Golden Ball”. And he responds with applause before the ball is put into play. The Frenchman has taken eight days off since the comeback against City, but his moment is so sweet that he cannot stand much longer. He needs to add minutes for the final in Paris and increase those statistics that for a long time have only been comparable with the most mythical names of Real Madrid.
He has been looking in the rearview mirror for a long time at Di Stéfano in the scorers’ table with the white shirt, and against Levante he equaled Raúl González, who is no longer second alone in that ranking. 323 goals was scored by the mythical «7» and Benzema has the same ones, who does not seem to have a hard time standing alone behind Cristiano, the only one unattainable for Karim.
He already had his first Pichichi trophy secured, but he doesn’t want to stop. He has 27 goals in the League, compared to 18 by Aspas, who only fights with Raúl de Tomás for being the best Spanish striker. The one of the championship and, surely of the world right now, is the “9” of Real Madrid, who lives a maturity that few imagined a few years ago. He is the leader on and off the field and has become relentless in the area. He has taken a liking to scoring and applies himself like never before in the unmarking.
After 75 minutes, Benzema went to rest, with another ovation that the Bernabéu only reserves for the undisputed. Vinicius stayed on the grass. “I wonder [Ancelotti] if he wanted to go out but I told him I wanted a few more minutes to score my first ”hat-trick””, the Brazilian later acknowledged. Said and done: goal achieved. He has been Karim’s best partner throughout the season. «The connection has been very good all year and I hope it will continue like this until he retires. He deserves the Ballon d’Or”, said the Brazilian, who is already looking forward to the game against Liverpool.
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