Karim Benzema hat-trick seals stunning Real Madrid comeback as PSG unravel again

Real Madrid 3-1 PSG (3-2 agg): After Kylian Mbappe struck in the first half, Benzema and Luka Modric rolled back the years to secure Madrid’s place in the Champions League quarter-finals

Karim Benzema celebrates completing his hat-trick (AFP via Getty Images)

That’s how Real Madrid win, sang the Bernabeu crowd, and that - embarrassingly - is how Paris Saint-Germain lose in Europe. Despite a 2-0 lead on aggregate, and despite that being delivered by the best player in the world in Kylian Mbappe, this Qatari state project have once again crashed out of the Champions League in the most cataclysmic fashion.

This was another night to add to the catalogue of embarrassments, made all the worse because it should have been another performance to add to Mbappe’s growing legend. It instead somehow only added to the legend of Madrid, and the effervescent Karim Benzema, while offering one big argument why Mbappe should join him at the Bernabeu.

For all that a night like this naturally leads to a discussion of the grander consequences - not least Mauricio Pochettino’s future - it should really be about the gloriously enjoyable intensity of the here and now and.

It was just one other twist that Mbappe was not the French forward to dominate and decide the tie. Benzema took command and took the breath away, scoring a rousing hat-trick to again send Madrid into the quarter-finals.

It was all the more impressive given he is 32 years old but, but by that point in the game, the Bernabeu’s cast of veterans were just powering through PSG, showing the greater conviction and vigour. There was much more than experience on show here.

Up there with Benzema was the peerless Luka Modric, who so divinely set up that exquisite equalising goal with a sublime pass.

In another season, of course, the away goal could have rendered that irrelevant. This entire second leg was one substantial argument why Uefa got rid of it.

On another night, meanwhile, we’d all have been talking about Mbappe’s magnificent first goal.

There was one of those eternal sporting lessons, though, in the way it was Mbappe’s casual approach that cost him an ingenious second. He didn’t just fail to look at the offside line but failed to pay any attention whatsoever.

It didn’t just change the path of the night but summed up PSG. It was so narratively fitting that an entirely self-inflicted error caused yet another implosion. With PSG toying with Madrid to the point they were taking it too easy, Gigi Donnarumma took too long on the ball and just gifted it to Madrid.

Benzema was waiting to finish and Madrid were now ready to pounce. They were ready to show what European football is really about. This should be remembered as one of many of PSG’s utterly galling frustrations on the night. The unmistakable truth is that they are so much more talented than Madrid. The divine nature of Mbappe’s goal showed that. The overall performance, however, showed they lack so man other qualities. Among them are character and discipline.

Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring the opener (AFP via Getty Images)

It showed a club where there is something broken, where the dysfunctional culture means they are so often so much less than the sum of their parts. How can a side this good, with someone like Mbappe replacing the tired Leo Messi, not build on the manner of the opening goal they got? It should have been a statement moment for Mbappe. It ended up contributing to one grand story of hubris.

Mbappe had already beaten Courtois with a thunderous finish on 34 minutes, only for the goal to be ruled out because Nuno Mendes had strayed offside. That was initially no problem. Mbappe just went and did it again, and from a more difficult position.

That all added to a goal that was simply luscious. On another night, too, Neymar’s ball would have been the moment to pick. Even that was upstaged, though, several times over.

Turning onto the break in play, Neymar swung his foot to deliver a perfectly weighted through ball right into Mbappe’s path. It opened up the entire Madrid half, but the forward still had David Alaba closing him down. Mbappe had a decision, as he could have just kept going, or tried to beat the defender. He instead did what no one expected, least of all Courtois.

Shaping to curl the ball around the goalkeeper to the far side of the net in the manner of Thierry Henry, he instead offered a Mbappe special. The 23-year-old powered the ball into the bottom corner, with one of those driven skipping shots he has made his own. Except even Mbappe would usually go for it inside the box. To do it outside, in that situation, was simply the image of a player trying something because he knew he could.

Karim Benzema celebrates after completing his hat-trick (Getty Images)

He tried something even better in the second half, with a moment of genius this time reminiscent of both Pele and Ronaldo. It also perhaps illustrated the last remaining flaws in his game. For all the jaw-dropping ingenuity of Mbappe’s shuffle to both humiliate and astound Courtois, the moment was undone by the most lax of errors: his unwillingness to read the offside line. Or, given just far ahead he was, to even look at it all.

That should have been the end of the tie. It was only the start of the real story, but largely because the game itself went from the sublime to the ridiculous. Donnarumma almost fell, Benzema rose to it. That was 2-1, and it was all to be too quick for PSG. Modric was just too much, offering the most insightful and incisive of passes for Benzema to make 2-2.

With PSG still struggling to comprehend what was happening, Benzema displayed real understanding of what it takes at this level. He thundered the ball into the net, to power Madrid into the next round.

All of Messi, Mbappe and Neymar were left looking ashen-faced. Madrid players were falling to the ground in ecstasy, the Bernabeu proclaiming them “kings of Europe” and singing all the old songs. These are scenes we’ve seen before. As ever with these two clubs, though, there was an astonishing new way to prove the game’s old truths.