Benzema breaks Ronaldo's Champions League record
The Frenchman has now overtaken the duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Olivier Giroud as the oldest player to score a Champions League hat-trick
Karim Benzema scored a second-half hat-trick in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 match against PSG at the Santiago Bernabeu to help Real Madrid enter the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The Frenchman has now overtaken the duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Olivier Giroud as the oldest player to score a Champions League hat-trick:
Oldest players to score a Champions League hat-trick:
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) March 9, 2022
◉ Karim Benzema (34Y 80D)
◎ Olivier Giroud (34Y 63D)
◎ Cristiano Ronaldo (34Y 35D)
Benz replaced them and now takes their record. ???? pic.twitter.com/KWAIVeSQLR
Trailing 0-1 from the first leg, Madrid were looking at the exit door as Kylian Mbappe added to his goal in Paris by netting in the first half.
But an error by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma opened the doors for the 13-time champions as Benzema restored parity on the night to give Carlo Ancelotti's team a glimmer of hope in the 61st minute.
A manic 17-minute period saw Benzema score two more goals as a star-studded PSG team, with the likes of Mbappe and teammates Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr, came up short yet again in Europe's elite club tournament.
Real Madrid pulled off one of the great Champions League comebacks on Wednesday as Karim Benzema scored a breath-taking hat-trick to upstage Kylian Mbappe and dump Paris Saint-Germain out in the last 16.
Madrid were set to be the latest victims of another Mbappe masterclass at the Santiago Bernabeu after the 23-year-old ran them ragged for the best part of an hour and fired in to put PSG 1-0 up on the night, 2-0 ahead on aggregate.
But Madrid came storming back as Benzema capitalised on a mistake by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and then scored an incredible double in two minutes, the third coming just eight seconds after PSG had kicked off.
When the full-time whistle confirmed their 3-2 aggregate victory, many of Madrid's players dropped to their knees and looked up to the sky, as much perhaps in disbelief as joy, after completing one of the most memorable turnarounds in the club's recent history.
