Karim Benzema became Real Madrid’s second-highest all-time goal scorer as the club kicked off their 2022/2023 campaign with a 2-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Super Cup at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in Finland tonight.
The UEFA Champions League holders were led to the comfortable win over the UEFA Europa League holders through goals from David Alaba and Benzema.
Real Madrid started with an identical line-up to the one that started in their Champions League final victory over Liverpool in May and they started slowly.
Eintracht Frankfurt, who defeated Rangers on penalties in the Europa League final in May, started brightly but could not really trouble the more accomplished Spanish side.
Alaba opened the scoring for Real Madrid in the 37th minute, tapping home from close range from Casemiro’s ball.
The first half ended with that goal the only difference between the sides, and Frankfurt sought to find the equaliser.
The Germans, who lost their opening Bundesliga fixture 6-1 to Bayern Munich at the weekend, could however not break through the Madrid defence led by Alaba and Eder Militao.
In a bid to get back into the tie, Frankfurt introduced Mario Gotze, the former Borussia Dortmund forward who scored Germany’s winner in the 2014 final against Argentina.
Instead, it was Real Madrid who got the next goal in the 65th minute through Benzema, who sidefooted home off Vinius Junior’s low cross.
With the goal, Benzema overtook Raul as Real Madrid’s second top scorer in history.
The Frenchman, who was captain tonight, now has 324 Real Madrid goals, one more than the legendary Spaniard.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 450, is the only player in the club’s history with more goals than Benzema.
Comments are closed.