Benzema's 100th Champions League game: 10 key moments
With Karim Benzema set for 100 tournament appearances, we look at 10 big moments in his Champions League career with Lyon and Real Madrid.
1. Lyon 2-1 Rosenborg (6/12/2005)
In the final round of the 2005/06 group-phase fixtures, a 17-year-old Karim Benzema made his Champions League debut for a Lyon side already through to the knockout stages. He played the full 90 minutes in front of his home crowd and, with just over half an hour on the clock, scored his first goal in the competition.
2. Rangers 0-3 Lyon (12/12/2007)
Now established in the Lyon team, Benzema bagged his first brace in Europe's elite club tournament, helping the Ligue 1 outfit to a 3-0 win at Ibrox that secured their passage to the last 16. In total, the Frenchman has managed nine doubles in his Champions League career.
3. Lyon 1–0 Real Madrid (16/02/2010)
In his first season after swapping Lyon for Real Madrid in a 35-million-euro move, he came up against his former employers in the last 16 of the Champions League. Left on the bench by then-Real boss Manuel Pellegrini, he was brought on for Gonzalo Higuaín on the hour mark, but couldn't prevent his side from going down 1-0 at the Stade Gerland - a first-leg deficit that Los Blancos were unable to overturn at the Bernabéu two weeks later.
4. Real Madrid 4-0 Auxerre (8/12/2010)
It was against a French club that Benzema notched up his first hat-trick in the Champions League. Since then, the 30-year-old has managed one more treble in the competition, against Malmö in 2015.
5. Real Madrid 6–2 Dinamo Zagreb (22/11/2011)
Real Madrid's group-phase thashing of Dinamo Zagreb in late 2011 saw Benzema net after 88 seconds to score what was then Real Madrid's fastest ever goal in the Champions League. It was a record he held for five years, until Gareth Bale's 57-second strike against Legia Warsaw in 2016/17.
6. Ajax 1-4 Real Madrid (3/11/2012)
In his 99 appearances in the Champions League so far, Benzema has had time to score goals of all shapes and sizes - including overhead kicks. Against Ajax in November 2012, he hit one of his best ever efforts, acrobatically volleying Kaká's cross past goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer.
7. Atlético 1-4 Real Madrid (24/05/2014)
Lisbon was the setting for an all-Madrid Champions League final in 2014 (the first of two in three years) as Atlético went after a maiden European title and Real sought to end a 12-year wait to lift the trophy. Named in the line-up by then-coach Carlo Ancelotti, Benzema tasted victory in the competition for the first time in his career, helping Los Merengues to the long-awaited 'La Décima'.
8. Real Madrid 5-1 Basel (16/10/2014)
In October 2014, Benzema had the honour of bringing up Real Madrid's 1,000th European Cup goal when he rounded off the scoring in the Spaniards' 5-1 group-stage thumping of Basel at the Bernabéu.
9. Juventus 1-4 Real Madrid (3/06/2017)
Last June, Benzema lifted the Champions League for the third time, becoming one of only three Frenchmen - along with Raphael Varane and Raymond Kopa - to be involved in a trio of European Cup successes. Every one of those three players' winners' medals were secured in the white shirt of Real Madrid.
10. APOEL 0-6 Real Madrid (21/11/2017)
In this season's group stage, Benzema overtook Thierry Henry's total of 51 to become France's all-time leading scorer in the competition, reaching 53 goals after striking twice in a 6-0 rout of APOEL in Nicosia.
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