Karim Benzema chasing Champions League single-season scoring record

Karim Benzema goes into Real Madrid’s second leg against Manchester City with the Champions League single-season scoring record in sight.

Benzema’s 14 goals in this season’s competition are just three shy of Cristiano Ronaldo’s record, and joint-fifth in the chart overall.

Here, the PA news agency looks at his season and how he compares.

Benzema. AGAIN.#UCL pic.twitter.com/zGbu810Fba

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 12, 2022

France striker Benzema scored five goals in as many games in the group stage of this year’s competition, including a brace against Shakhtar Donetsk, but it is in the knockout rounds where he has truly come to life.

After being shut out along with his team as they lost the first leg 1-0 to Paris St Germain in the last 16, his hat-trick in the return fixture saw his side through 3-2 on aggregate.

He fired another treble in the quarter-final first leg against Chelsea – the fourth in his Champions League career, exceeded only by Ronaldo and Lionel Messi with eight apiece and Robert Lewandowski with five – and scored an extra-time winner after the Blues matched the 3-1 scoreline in 90 minutes.

Two goals, including an outrageous Panenka penalty, in last week’s barnstorming 4-3 loss to City kept Real in the tie and set up the possibility of more drama on Wednesday.

One more goal will match Ronaldo’s record 10 in the knockout stages, set in 2016-17, while Benzema has 42 goals in all competitions this season.

Ronaldo started his historic campaign with a hat-trick against Galatasaray, and scored twice in a game on a further five occasions – against Copenhagen and Juventus in the group stage, Schalke home and away in the last 16 and at Bayern Munich in the semi-final.

He scored once each in the