Benzema levels Messi and Raul's Champions League record with goal vs Viktoria Plzen Karim Benzema joined the Champions League's all-time greats by scoring Real Madrid's first goal against Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday night. The Frenchman opened his account for this season's European competition by heading home a perfectly executed cross by Lucas Vasquez inside 11 minutes.
Prior to kick-off, the 30-year-old forward boasted just four goals in 12 appearances across all competitions for his Real Madrid side who have gone five games in succession without a win. While successfully registering his first goal since September 1, Benzema landed in the Champions League's record books for his feat in the night's encounter.
The Frenchman became the third player in the European competition's history to score in 14 consecutive seasons, following in the Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez. At the same time, Benzema usurped ex-Galactico Ruud Van Nistelroy to move up to fourth in the all-time Champions League scoring charts.
3 - Karim Benzema has scored more headed goals than any other La Liga player this season in all competitions (three). Hunter. pic.twitter.com/MgZ6UshZDA
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 23, 2018
The former Lyon starlet's tally now stands at 57 in the competition. He only trails Raul, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who have 75, 105 and 125 goals to their names on the all-time top-goalscorers chart, respectively.
Karim Benzema is now just two goals shy of taking his overall goal tally to 200 in 420 appearances for Real Madrid.
