Karim Benzema and Vinicius will pair up in the attacking line

Real Madrid will play a game on Wednesday evening. It will be interesting to see how Benzema and Vinicius will pair up. 

Champions League is back for Karim

Real Madrid kick off their Champions League adventure this Wednesday night, September 15, with Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior currently the most clinical partnership across Europe’s top five leagues. Their first game will take place against Inter at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, and it’s worth remembering that these two teams faced each other in last season’s group stage. In November 2020, Real Madrid won 2-0 in Milan thanks to a strike from Eden Hazard and an Achraf Hakimi own goal. Taking a look at the stats, no other team in Europe has an attacking pair that has been involved in as many goals as Real Madrid’s duo of Benzema and Vinicius. So far, they have scored nine of Real Madrid’s 13 goals, with the Frenchman grabbing five and the Brazilian netting five.

Gareth Bale is injured again

Now that Gareth Bale is injured, the responsibility has fallen to Hazard to step up and join the example set by Benzema and Vinicius to become the third member of Real Madrid’s new attacking trident. The last recognizable strike-force for Los Blancos was the BBC trident, which was formed by Bale, Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo.

There is no doubt that the Champions League is Benzema’s specialty. At present he is the fourth-highest scoring player in the competition to still be playing, behind Robert Lewandowski (75), Lionel Messi (120) and Cristiano Ronaldo (135). The Real Madrid No.9 is level with club legend Raul Gonzalez on 71 goals in Europe. Vinicius still has some way to go to fully establish himself in Europe, however. He had moments of brilliance, notably against Ajax in March 2019 before leaving the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu injured and in tears as Real Madrid crashed out of the competition. Last season the 21-year-old had one of his finest performances against Liverpool at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, scoring twice.