Benzema hat trick sees Real Madrid give Barcelona Copa del Rey nightmare

Barca’s second half collapse was unreal

Barcelona, what happened?

Real Madrid, paced by a second-half hat trick from Karim Benzema, trounced Barca 4-0 at the Camp Nou in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal. The result sends Real through to the final, where they’ll face Osasuna.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, especially after Barcelona won the first leg 1-0 in Madrid. A side that has conceded just nine goals in league play all season — by far the stingiest record in any of Europe’s top leagues — seemed well set-up to take one more step towards a domestic double.

With halftime looming, Barca had a completely acceptable 0-0 scoreline at home, and even looked like they could pad their advantage in the final seconds before the break.

However, after Thibaut Courtois made an excellent save on Robert Lewandowski, Barca’s attempt to turn an attacking move into a goal went awry.

If you’ve seen Real Madrid’s counter-attacking prowess under Carlo Ancelotti, you can probably imagine what followed.

Rodrygo raced away with the clearance, beat one man, and suddenly Real had a three-on-two. Vinícius Jr. played a clever one-two with Benzema, and the Brazil forward’s sneaky finish had just enough on it to get over the line.

Still, a level aggregate score with 45 minutes to play at home? That’s not so bad. Barca had, after all, won the last three meetings between the clubs, and despite a farcical offseason seemed to be reasserting themselves in the cyclical battle between Spain’s big two clubs.

Instead, Xavi’s side completely fell apart. Benzema made it 2-0 just five minutes into the second half, tucking home a shot after Luka Modrić took advantage of a glorious dummy run from Rodrygo to tee him up in acres of space.

Vini Jr. would then win a 57th minute penalty after being tripped up by Franck Kessié, with Benzema effectively putting the game away from the spot.

If you’re a team in this titanic rivalry, and your ancient foe isn’t even putting up much of a fight, you don’t just protect your lead and see the match out. Madrid wanted more goals, and they got a fourth through Benzema.

It was classic stuff from Ancelotti’s Real: Eduardo Camavinga received the ball after los Blancos forced a turnover, and with one pass cut out eight Barca players. Again Real charged up field with numbers, and Vini Jr. would wait until the two remaining defenders collapsed towards him. A timely pass to Benzema set the veteran up for a simple dink over Marc-André ter Stegen.

The goal made it two straight games with a hat trick for the France striker. Before the half got underway, Spanish clubs as a group had scored just 15 times on Barcelona in all competitions, and Benzema needed one half to raise that total by 20%.

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