Karim Benzema was among the goals as Real Madrid went top of La Liga by beating Barcelona 3-1 at the Bernabeu in the first Clasico of the season – a day before he's widely expected to win the Ballon d'Or.
The Real captain opened the scoring after 12 minutes, coolly finishing from 15 yards after Barca goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen had parried Vinicius Jr's initial shot. It was a dominant first half from Carlo Ancelotti's side, who doubled their lead on 35 minutes through Federico Valverde's ferocious low shot from outside the box.
Ferran Torres pulled one back from the visitors late on, but there was to be no dramatic comeback from Xavi's men as Real were awarded a penalty after a VAR review for a foul by Eric Garcia. By then, Benzema had been taken off, but substitute Rodrygo was on hand to secure all three points from the spot in stoppage time.
Benzema's goal was his fifth of an injury-disrupted season so far, bringing an end to a five-match drought – his longest barren spell in more than two-and-a-half years.
And that's a mark of how utterly brilliant the Frenchman has been over the past 12 months or so. Last term, he enjoyed the highest-scoring campaign of his long career, netting 44 times in all competitions as Real were crowned champions of Spain and Europe.
Those exploits look set to land him the Ballon d'Or – which last went to a Real player in 2018, when Luka Modric broke Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's decade-long co-stranglehold on football's ultimate individual prize.
At just under 34 years and 10 months, Benzema would become the recipient of the Ballon d'Or since inaugural winner Stanley Matthews (who was almost 42!) way back in 1956.
