After the euphoria of spring comes the sweetness of summer. It’s a bit like this atmosphere that has reigned, since the curtain went up, in the ranks of Real Madrid. The European and Spanish champion started his campaign perfectly by picking up a first trophy, the UEFA Super Cup, before crunching his teeth in this 2022-23 La Liga season. However, all is not yet perfect, far from it. The summer recruits still have to refine their automatisms to express themselves in a collective that has been oiled for many years. And despite a satisfactory balance sheet, Real remains very perfectible in its game.
Benzema still delivers Real
This Sunday, Karim Benzema and his teammates went through some turbulence in their trip to Barcelona against Espanyol. For Madrid, it is worth remembering that a victory on Catalan soil is always welcome. But Espanyol did not hear it that way. Courageous and enterprising, the locals offered a good opposition to the defending champion. And if Vinicius Jr took advantage of a serve from Tchouaméni to unblock the situation quickly (0-1, 12th), Joselu’s two-time equalizer before the break owed nothing to chance (1-1, 43rd).
The hot situations multiplied after returning from the locker room, and Real ended up taking advantage of it. Who else but Karim Benzema could deliver him? On a marvelous cross from Rodrygo, the French center-forward placed an unstoppable recovery at close range (1-2, 88th). He even offered himself a double by salting the bill with a clever free kick at the end of the night (3-1, 90th + 8). This third success in as many games allows the defending champion to recover his leader’s chair in front of Betis Sevilla, with two points ahead of Barça, who had tamed Valladolid at the start of the evening (4-0).