Opinion: Perfect pair Kenzema Benzema and Vinicius Junior currently the best attacking duo in Europe
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Updated 03/11/2021 at 22:46 GMT
Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior linked up for Real Madrid two goals in a 2-1 win against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. Not so long ago, the pair looked to be on different wavelengths, but they are now central to Carlo Ancelotti's team and are the best strike partnership in Europe right now.
Ancelotti hails Benzema and Vinicius Jr, can understand fans booing
For three seasons after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema essentially had to do it all on his own for Real Madrid. Eden Hazard was signed for £100m to be the Frenchman’s partner in crime, but the Belgian barely made it on the pitch long enough for any partnership to form.
Instead, it’s Vinicius Junior who has become Benzema’s right hand man on the left wing with the Brazilian currently in the form of his life. Previously maligned for his lack of final product, Vinicius can’t stop scoring and assisting for Real Madrid this season and most of the time it involves Benzema in some way.
This was certainly the case against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday night. With Carlo Ancelotti’s side in need of a win to keep themselves top of the ultra-competitive Group D, Benzema and Vinicius combined for both goals in a 2-1 victory for the hosts.
Benzema now has 13 goals and eight assists in 14 appearances for Real Madrid this season while Vinicius has nine goals and five assists in 15 outings. If the pair can sustain these numbers over the course of the whole season, Los Blancos stand a real chance of success even with fundamental flaws elsewhere on the pitch.
In the past, Vinicius was widely criticised for taking too many touches of the ball in the final third. More often than not, he would make the wrong call. Now, though, the 21-year-old is much sharper in his decision-making - see how he quickly fed Benzema for his brace against Shakhtar Donetsk when he previously might have attempted a shot himself.
Two weeks previously, it was Benzema who assisted Vinicius in a 5-0 away win over Shakhtar Donetsk with the Brazilian also scoring another from a Luka Modric set-up. The sample size is now large enough that Vinicius’ improvement looks permanent. He is a very different sort of player this season and is the perfect partner for Benzema.
Ancelotti has wisely built his Real Madrid team around Benzema and Vinicius as an attacking hub. While the Italian favours a 4-3-3 shape, it frequently shifts into a 4-4-2 with everything funnelled through the front two. It might be different if Ancelotti could find the right option on the right wing to stretch the pitch and create even more space for Benzema and Vinicius to link up.
The irony is that not so long Benzema and Vinicius were on very different wavelengths. The pair were seemingly incompatible to the point that Benzema was caught asking a teammate not to pass to Vinicius at half time of a Champions League match against Borussia Monchengladbach last season.
“He [Vinicius] does what he wants. Brother, don’t play with him…oh my God. He is playing against us,” Benzema said to Ferland Mendy in the tunnel after a particularly slack performance by Vinicius. A lot has changed since then. Vinicius certainly isn’t playing against Real Madrid this season and Benzema certainly isn’t asking teammates not to give him the ball.
In their current form, there is no better attacking partnership in European football than the one between Benzema and Vinicius. Son Heung-min and Harry Kane might have taken that accolade had they not suffered such an underwhelming start to the season under Nuno Espirito Santo, but Real Madrid’s pair rank above all else.
There are clubs with stronger attacks as a whole - see Liverpool’s front three and Paris Saint-Germain’s trio of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar - but as a duo there are no two attackers in the European game that compliment each other like Benzema and Vinicius do.
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