Karim Benzema equals THIS Cristiano Ronaldo record in UEFA Champions League

Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema equalled Cristiano Ronaldo's record of scoring the most knockout-stage goals in a single season of the UEFA Champions League. Benzema achieved this feat against Manchester City on Thursday (May 5) at the Santiago Bernabeu, Spain. 

The French striker who is having the best season of his career till date, will have the opportunity to overtake Ronaldo when his side will play against Liverpool in the UCL final.

It looked like Real Madrid were done and dusted out of the UCL in their second-leg semi-finals clash with Manchester City until the 90th minute. An astonishing brace from Brazilian Rodrygo sent the match to extra-time, while Real Madrid were giving City a tough time with the continuos attacking waves, Benzema was fouled inside the box.

Most non-penalty goals in a single UCL KO campaign:

Cristiano Ronaldo - 10

Karim Benzema - 09

The best UCL players of our generation. pic.twitter.com/aud5WPQZue — The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) May 4, 2022

The 34-year-old, who's played 43 games for Madrid this season with an average of 1.0, stepped up and didn't disappoint hitting the target for Real Madrid. Madrid thrashed Man City's UCL dream securing a 6-5 victory on aggregate and cruised into the finals where Liverpool awaits them.

This was Benzema's 10th goal of the UCL campaign, out of which two he scored at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Clearly, the Frenchman is having a remarkable individual campaign this season and to justify that he's getting neck to neck in terms of records with club legend Cristiano Ronaldo. 

In total, the 34-year-old now has a total of 15 goals out of which only 5 are scored in the group stages and 10 are scored in the knockout stages of the Champions League. By doing so, Benzema has now equalled Ronaldo's record of 10 knockout-stages goals which the former Real Madrid man set in the 2017-2018 season.