CF Karim Benzema
It’s been great to see Karim Benzema back on the scoresheet in consecutive matches. He headed home Vinicius Junior’s beautiful cross in the 2-0 win over Getafe, and he scored an even better goal vs. Valencia. Benzema opened the scoring in the first half with a lovely curled effort, struck with venom and precision. The way he cut inside and used the defender in front of him as a “wall” to diminish the keeper’s visibility of the curl was perfection.
Aside from the goal, Benzema, as per usual, did a lot of work to help his teammates. You could often see him shifting over to the left flank to pick up loose balls and exchange passes and positions with Vinicius. It’s very interesting to see how in the last couple of games, Vini and Benz have been showing a chemistry we haven’t seen before.
CM Luka Modric
Like Toni Kroos, Luka Modric had a marvelous game in the middle of the pitch for Real Madrid and would have been the Man of the Match if it weren’t for his German teammate’s sublime quality and world-class finish.
Modric nearly had a great goal himself with some of the longshots he attempted. The Croatian standout had three key passes, two dribbles completed, and three interceptions.
It’s amazing to see how much of an all-around impact Modric has on Real Madrid. He defends, creates chances, and even threatens to score. As always, Modric is the epitome of what it means to be a world-class midfielder, and he is the perfect player for Los Merengues. It’s too bad he didn’t record an assist, because he had a couple of passes that deserved to be finished.