Benzema continues Champions League love affair

Karim Benzema returns to action in is favorite competition while in the midst of the best moment of his career, with an incredible eight goals and seven assists to his name so far this season.

Even in greyer times at Madrid when his numbers were less productive, he always found refuge in the Champions League.

The 33-year-old striker has long held a special love affair with this competition. And tonight he has the chance to surpass Raúl to become the outright fourth all-time top scorer in the Champions League. With 71 goals (the same as Raúl currently) Benzema is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (135 goals), Lionel Messi (120 goals) and Robert Lewandowski (75 goals).

Benzema’s UCL beginnings

Of his 71 goals in the Champions League, 59 have been scored for Real Madrid. Despite arriving in Spain at the tender age of 21, he had already scored 12 goals in the UCL with his previous club, Lyon.

His affinity with the competition was immediate: he managed to score a goal in his first-ever UCL game with Lyon against Rosenborg in December, 2005. He found the net again in his second game against Steaua, despite playing for just five minutes, and repeated the feat in his third game, this time scoring as a starter against Dynamo Kiev.

With Madrid he also started well in the Champions League: providing an assist on his debut against Olympique Marseille and scoring a goal in his third appearance against AC Milan.

Champions League News:

Benzema seeks 34th scalp against Sheriff

So far, he has found the back of the net in Europe against 33 different opponents. If he scores against Sheriff tonight, a team he has never faced before, the Moldavon club will become his 34th victim.

The last time he played for the first time against a team, he scored: against Chelsea in the first leg of the semi-final last year. He has the highest number of goals (five) against Galatasaray, followed by Ajax, APOEL and Liverpool, against each of whom he has scored four goals.

The question today is whether Carlo Ancelotti is going to opt to rest him, either from the start or in the second half. So far this season, he has only missed 11 minutes, in two games that were completely resolved well before he left the pitch: he was substituted in the 89th minute against Alavés (1-4) and in the 80th minute in the 6-1 win against Mallorca at the Santiago Bernabéu last Wednesday.