Benzema keeps Real Madrid eyes on the here and now

Real Madrid 3 (3) - 1 (2) Paris Saint-Germain, Bernabeu, Madrid
(Benzema 61', 76', 78' - Mbappe 39')

Few goals can have had such an overwhelming sense of inevitability as Kylian Mbappe’s opener on Wednesday night. And few collapses can have been quite so predictable as Paris Saint-Germain's subsequent failure to progress.

Not only had the prematch narrative focused on Real's desperation to sign Mbappe when his contract expires at the end of this season, but he had scored the decisive goal late in the first leg. When, moments after he had a goal disallowed, he fired home after a counterattack in a similar position, it felt like a glimpse in to the near future for the fans packed in to the Bernabeu.

But the players who represent the present, and indeed the prolific past, were determined to prove that they are not done yet.

PSG were incisive, rapid, and seemed able to carve through Real at will in the first half, looking every inch a team that could finally end their fruitless, frustrated quest for European club football's biggest prize. Mbappe may have questioned why he would leave such a team for a side that looked stuck in the past, with a 36-year-old Luka Modric and 32-year-old Toni Kroos at its heart.

Deja vu

Then it happened again. First Karim Benzema hustled, harried and arguably fouled Gianluigi Donnarumma as the goalkeeper dwelt on the ball. He was rewarded with an equalizer. It should have been a nudge of warning to PSG, it was instead the signal for the Qatari-owned club to capitulate and for Modric to take control.

After that chastening first half, it was tempting to think of the Croatian as a man of the past conducting a team set to go out at the first knockout stage for the third time in four seasons and just waiting for the Mbappe reboot. It was also foolish.

The second was scored by Benzema, another veteran, at 34, but all about Modric. The midfielder won the ball just outside his own box and shrugged off the attentions of Neymar before slipping in an inch-perfect pass to Vinicius Junior. The ball quickly found its way back to Modric who played an even better pass, this time disguised, to Benzema, who turned up the heat another notch.

Leading the way

The meltdown was complete 12 seconds later: PSG gave the ball away immediately from the restart before Marquinhos lazily stabbed a clearance into Benzema's path. The striker's brilliant first-time finish was composed, clever and lethal — all the things his opponents have yet to become.

Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi became increasingly peripheral and frustrated figures as PSG continued to make elementary defensive mistakes. Mauricio Pochettino's team have experience, in terms of age and knockout games. But their continued Champions League calamities are surely now inarguable proof that they don't have leaders and winners. 

This Real side, many of whom won four of the five Champions League titles between 2014 and 2018, have great quantities of both. If Mbappe might have been reconsidering his mooted move at the break, he's unlikely to have been by the final whistle.