History Karim Benzema! The French goleador slammed a hat-trick to propel Real Madrid to a crushing 4-2 victory over Almeria on Saturday for the 32nd day of La Liga, and thus joins the top four of the best scorers in the history of the Spanish championship.

The 2022 Ballon d’Or benefited from two five-star services from the Brazilians Vinicius (5th) and Rodrygo (17th), who each signed a festival on their wing before serving the French goleador against the cages, then Benzema sealed his hat-trick on penalty (41st), after a foul by the Belgian Largie Ramazani on Lucas Vazquez in the box. A hat-trick that allows him to reach the bar of 236 goals scored in La Liga, and thus overtake the Mexican Hugo Sanchez (234 goals) to join the top 4 of the best scorers in the history of the Spanish championship.

Benzema can still hope to join the historic center forward of Athletic Bilbao Telmo Zarra (253 goals) before his retirement to join the top 3 of this ranking. But the first two places, occupied by Lionel Messi (473 goals) and Cristiano Ronaldo (311 goals), seem out of reach.

Before the break, Lazaro, forgotten behind Antonio Rüdiger’s back, closed the gap (41st), but Rodrygo, with a dry strike, gave the Merengues a three-point lead after returning from the locker room (47th), before Lucas Robertone, who came into play four minutes earlier in place of Cesar de la Hoz, brought his side to two goals (61st) by taking advantage of a bad pass from Toni Kroos in his own area.

Thanks to this full success, Real is temporarily within eight points of FC Barcelona, ​​​​which receives Betis Sevilla in the evening (9:00 p.m.) at Camp Nou. And with that hat-trick, Benzema also pounced on arch-rival Robert Lewandowski in the fight for the Pichichi Trophy as La Liga’s top scorer which he snatched last season.

Before the Blaugranas match, the Frenchman (17 league goals) is only one length behind the Pole (18 goals). Upon returning from the World Cup, “Lewy”, who is currently going through an unusual dry spell in the face of the cages, had twelve, and the “Nueve” five. The former Lyonnais could even have scored a quadruple, but the penalty he caused was later canceled by the referee after video viewing, for a prior tripping of the French on his defender.

This new full match confirms the excellent form of the former French international. In this month of April, Benzema slammed three hat-tricks: at Valladolid on the 2nd, at the Camp Nou on the 5th, then at the Bernabéu on April 29. In its wake, Real has also regained color. Corrected 4-2 on the ground of promoted Girona (due in particular to a hat-trick from Taty Castellanos) in the absence of Thibaut Courtois and his captain Karim Benzema, the “White House” pulled itself together on its lawn, a week before their Copa del Rey final against Osasuna (May 6 in Seville) and ten days before their Champions League semi-final first leg against Manchester City (May 9 at the Bernabéu).

Earlier in the day, Elche, the bottom of La Liga, crushed Rayo Vallecano 4-0 on their ground, winning there their third victory of the season, the first for almost two months (1-0 in Mallorca on March 4). A victory for honor, as the illicitan club seems destined for relegation.

Andoni Iraola’s players, who had just achieved a big blow by having outclassed Barça 2-1 on their lawn on Wednesday, had to play a large part of the match at ten after the expulsion of French defender Florian Lejeune from the start. 27th minute for a tackle with both feet off on Pere Milla.