TOP As Chelsea loses to Real Madrid in the Champions League, Karim Benzema joins Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Robert Lewandowski in the elite club.
Real Madrid advanced to the Champions League semi-finals with a 3-1 victory over Chelsea, thanks to an incredible hat-trick from Karim Benzema.
The Frenchman, who also scored three goals against Paris Saint-Germain in Madrid's last European match, is only the fourth player in Champions League history to have scored 80 or more goals, joining Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Robert Lewandowski on the list.
Benzema's first two goals were scored with his head, the first angled into the top right corner – which Tony Cascarino described as "as good as you're ever going to see" – and the second caressed into the bottom left corner of the Chelsea net.
Kai Havertz, who has scored a number of crucial goals for Chelsea in this competition, also scored with his head after latching onto a clever ball by Jorginho that just left the German to nod past ex-Blue Thibaut Courtois.
However, a mistake by Edouard Mendy allowed Madrid to reclaim a two-goal lead.
When attempting to play a simple pass to teammate Antonio Rudiger, the Chelsea man gave the ball straight to Benzema – similar to when Gianluigi Donnarumma did the same thing when Madrid beat Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16.
“Donnarumma. "That's all I've got," Cascarino told talkSPORT. "He did the exact same thing." I had a rant on Sports Breakfast the other week about goalkeepers trying to be clever with intricate passes, and Mendy has had an absolute stinker.