Spanish Cup quarterfinal
Real Madrid and Karim Benzema (2 goals) finished the job at Girona and move on the Spanish Cup semifinals. With the brace today the Frenchman enters more into the legend of the club becoming the sixth all-time club’s goal scorer.
Benzema is back at his best this season and has picked up the opportunity left behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure. Next for the Real Madrid and Benzema are Barcelona in the Spanish Cup semifinals.
The two rivals will face each other three times in the span of the few weeks for the delight of millions of fans in Spain and across the globe.
Coach Solari on taking games one after the other:
“Football is all about the here and now, it’s a common-sense phrase that we apply to our lives. You’ve got to take things one step at a time. The professional is trained to place their focus on where it’s of use.
They can’t live out their profession as the media and fans do. Our energy, concentration and focus has to be on the Alavés game, which will be really demanding and we’ll need to perform as we did against Espanyol.
All of the games are important if you want to remain in the competitions, both those that we’ll play in and those that we’ve already played in. This team is well used to this stage of the season.
The aim is to manage to compete on all fronts. The achievement lies in being in contention when the games come around. We won the Club World Cup and are involved in another three competitions.
We’re in very good shape, with good energy and have a full squad available, barring [Jesús] Vallejo who’s on the verge of returning. We head into the match in a totally relaxed frame of mind.
On Benzema:
Benzema has always shone. Those players who improve those around them have got something special about them and he does just that. Every player that, be it because of their talent, effort, commitment or because they raise the team’s intensity levels, is a player that really shines.
We’ve got a lot of those kinds of players. People don’t talk about them much, but they do a great job and make the team more competitive. Benzema is one such player and he’s always shone. He’s in good form, is scoring goals and we’re happy for him”.
