Real Madrid salvaged what was left of their domestic campaign on Wednesday evening when they secured a much-needed 4-0 win at Camp Nou over Barcelona in the second leg of their semi-final Copa Del Rey fixture.
Real Madrid, who are 12 points behind the Blaugrana in La Liga, lost the first leg of the fixture 1-0 at Santiago Bernabeu, which means that they needed to win by 2 goals to move into the finals where Osasuna was waiting for the winner of the tie.
Osasuna defeated Athletic Club 2-1 on aggregate after a 1:1 draw in the second leg on Tuesday after extra time.
For Carlo Ancelotti’s men, Karim Benzema was the man who led the comeback victory with a hat-trick on the night, although it was Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior who opened the scoring before halftime.
Real were under pressure from Barcelona with seconds left in the first half, but goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saved Robert Lewandowski’s effort, and the Los Blancos counter-attacked immediately, with Vinicius Junior beating Ter Stegen and Jules Kounde to open the scoring.
Benzema then scored the first two goals within eight second-half minutes, with the first coming in the 50th minute and the second coming 8 minutes later to put Real Madrid comfortable in the game and on the tie.
His second goal came from a penalty, but the hat-trick was completed 10 minutes before full time as Benzema linked up with an assist from Vinicius Junior to finish off the game.
It was the second consecutive game that the Frenchman would be scoring a hat-trick for Real Madrid after the weekend’s performance that saw him score a hat-trick in Real’s 6-0 victory over Real Valladolid.
Real Madrid will face Osasuna in the final of the competition on May 6 at the Estadio De La Cartuja in Sevilla.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
