Real Madrid’s hopes of retaining their La Liga title all but ended in a brutal manner as they fell to an away defeat in El Clasico, and fans were particularly unhappy at a number of their star players.
Heroes turned to villains as the Champions League holders were unable to close the gap on Barcelona, who are now 12 points at the top of the table, and Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema was particularly poor.
What happened to Benzema in El Clasico?
The striker looked way off the pace as he struggled to make an impact upfront, and the 35-year-old’s physical decline started to appear less than a year after his stellar individual campaign helped Real win their 14th European Cup.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side were out-possessed and outshot at the Camp Nou, and whilst the Italian’s tactics have started to be questioned, Benzema stood out as one of the poorest performers because of his poor attacking movement.
This was particularly noticable when exciting winger Vinicius Junior was single-handedly trying to create chances, but found himself alone in the Barcelona box. This was in stark contrast to how Barcelona’s attackers would fly forward, which ultimately led to Franck Kessie’s late winner.
Real Madrid legend Guti even highlighted this as an issue, claiming the pair of attackers were too isolated from the rest of the team, and fans were quick to lay the blame at Benzema’s physical decline.
The best of the reaction to his performance can be seen below.
