March 5, 2023 will be the 4th El Clasico match in 2023 as well as the 2nd leg in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey. This time the meeting took place at Barcelona’s home ground, Camp Nou. In this match, Real Madrid was under more pressure because they were 1-0 down due to defeat by that score in the Copa del Rey semifinal leg 1 which took place at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real Madrid came to Camp Nou indeed with bad capital. A narrow defeat at home clearly made Real Madrid’s move to advance to the final even tougher. Moreover, in the last 3 El Clasico meetings, Real Madrid have not been able to win even once.
As usual, El Clasico was exciting. Both teams appear to attack each other and try to score goals. However, Real Madrid was able to open the scoring at the end of the first half through a super fast counter-attack scheme involving 3 Real Madrid front line players namely Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr. and Karim Benzema. The first goal was created by Vinicius with an assist from Karim Benzema.
In the second half, everything seemed to collapse for Barcelona. Luka Modric, who messed up the Barcelona defense, then gave a pass to the unmarked Benzema and there was Real Madrid’s 2nd goal in the 50th minute, which was scored by Karim Benzema. Barcelona’s defensive woes continued after midfielder Franck Kessie made an insignificant tackle on Vinicius which led to the referee pointing to the spot for Barcelona. This opportunity was not wasted by Benzema who executed the penalty perfectly and scored his 3rd goal for Madrid in this El Clasico.
The chaos of Barcelona’s defense was exploited perfectly by Real Madrid. The 4th goal came after 3 Real Madrid attackers were not guarded by the Barcelona defense where Vinicius was able to freely run from the middle of the field to then provide an assist for Karim Benzema to score the 4th goal for Real Madrid as well as a hat trick for Karim Benzema himself.
The match ended with a score of 0-4 for Real Madrid’s victory while ensuring Real Madrid’s passage to the Copa del Rey final after winning with an aggregate score of 4-1 from Barcelona.
The hat-trick scored by Benzema has made him the number 4 top scorer in El Clasico history with 16 goals. This figure is only 2 points away from Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid legend Alfredo di Stefano with 18 goals. Lionel Messi is still the top scorer in El Clasico with 26 goals.
Karim Benzema’s 3 goals also seemed to confirm the nickname Ramadhan Karim, which was recently pinned on this French striker. This nickname appeared after Karim Benzema scored a hat trick in the match against Real Valladolid in the La Liga competition even though he was fasting. Coupled with 3 goals in this El Clasico match, Karim Benzema has scored a total of 6 goals in 2 matches this Ramadan.
This victory over Barcelona led Real Madrid to the Copa del Rey final for the 2022/23 season. This is also a separate record for Real Madrid because the last time they reached the Copa del Rey final was 9 seasons ago to be precise in the 2013/14 season.
Real Madrid’s opponent is Osasuna. Osasuna itself qualified for the Copa del Rey final after getting rid of the team that subscribed to the Copa del Rey final, Athletic Bilbao, with a narrow 2-1 aggregate. Osasuna finally won the Copa del Rey final again after last being in the final at the same event in the 2004/05 season, almost 20 years ago.
Back to Real Madrid. Los Blancos itself has a less flashy record in the Copa del Rey. With this win over Barcelona, Real Madrid recorded their 40th place in the Copa del Rey final. This number is indeed only 2 finals away from their rivals who have penetrated the Copa del Rey final 42 times.
However, the achievements recorded by the two teams are in fact very far apart. Of the 42 finals played, Barcelona was able to win 31 of them. On the other hand, of the 39 finals Real Madrid had in previous seasons, Real Madrid were only able to win 19 trophies and lost on 20 other occasions. This achievement is clearly less flashy than another Copa del Rey final subscriber, Athletic Bilbao. Of the 39 opportunities that Bilbao had, they were able to bring home 23 Copa del Rey trophies, aka 4 more than Real Madrid.
In the 40th final, Real Madrid is clearly expected to be able to bring home the Copa del Rey trophy, especially since their opponent is ‘only’ Osasuna, whose squad quality is below Real Madrid. 2 meetings between Real Madrid and Osasuna in La Liga this season also favored Madrid where they were held to a 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu and successfully beat Osasuna with a score of 0-2.
ASL
