Following his outstanding performance for Real Madrid against Paris Saint-Germain, Thibaut Courtois predicted Karim Benzema would fight for the Ballon d’Or.
Benzema scored a hat-trick to help Madrid beat PSG 3-1 in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, advancing to the Champions League quarter-finals 3-2 on aggregate.
The Ligue 1 leaders led 1-0 following the first leg of the last-16 encounter, and it looked as if the tie might be finished as Kylian Mbappe fired past Courtois in the first half.
That was until Benzema inspired a spectacular comeback in the final half-hour, scoring twice after forcing a mistake from goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and then directing home a deflected drive.
The France striker then flicked in Vinicius Junior’s pass to send the home fans into jubilations and mark his 500th start for the club in supreme style by surpassing the great Alfredo Di Stefano in Madrid’s all-time scoring charts with 309 in all competitions.
Courtois now thinks Benzema, who became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in Champions League history at the age of 34 years and 80 days, could be in line for the game’s top individual honour in 2022.
“I think he’s one of the greatest players in the world, the best number nine, maybe with Lewandowski right now,” Courtois told RMC Sport.
“I think he showed why he should, maybe, win the Ballon d’Or this year. He’s a great player, a real captain. He led the team to victory with his goals and his class.”
Mbappe twice saw a goal ruled out for offside prior to Madrid’s fightback as PSG again suffered a Champions League second-leg collapse in Spain, five years on from their famous 6-1 loss to Luis Enrique’s Barcelona.
“In the end, it was a complicated match with Kylian and Neymar on the counter-attack,” said Courtois.
“That was how the first goal came about. Just before then, they had a few chances without much danger.
“We had a nice shot from Karim, I think Donnarumma made a good save from a header. Then Karim pressed the goalkeeper well, he made a mistake, we got back to 1-1. From there, I think the whole stadium was behind us.
“We went for the win after going 2-1 up, the third goal was key, and you felt that for the PSG players, it was harder after this goal.”
