Karim Benzema insists his confidence never wavers as he ended his penalty drought with an ice-cool panenka against Manchester City.
The Champions League semi-final clash had it all as both sides played out a seven-goal thriller, with the reigning Premier League champions sealing a 4-3 win. The Spanish side were trailing by two goals on three occasions but were able to respond each time Pep Guardiola's side stretched their lead.
And Benzema's spot-kick, which made it 4-3 giving the Spanish side a fighting chance at the Bernabeu in the return leg, epitomised the drama that unfolded at the Etihad.
The French striker, who is arguably the best player in the world at the minute, netted an audacious penalty - his 40th strike of the season - with the tie hanging in the balance as Aymeric Laporte handled the ball in the box.
Benzema has missed three out of his last four penalties, including two in the same game against Osasuna last week, but somehow held his nerve to dink it down the middle of the goal past Ederson.
The veteran striker explained why he opted for a Panenka and his response was equally as ice cool as the finish itself. Benzema said after the match: “I always have it in my head that if you don’t take a penalty, you will never miss a penalty.
“That’s mental confidence and that's all. I have a lot of confidence in myself... so I do it and it turns out well."
Benzema sent a warning to Man City ahead of the return leg at Santiago Bernabeu, adding: "A defeat is never good," he told Spanish TV immediately after the match. "We need the fans more than ever now, but we will do something magic, and win."
Carlo Ancelotti insists he had no idea that Benzema was going to go for a Panenka, but hailed his No.9 for the composure he displayed. The Real Madrid boss said: “The way he did it surprised me a little bit. He has that kind of personality to take a penalty that is so spectacular.
"I think he changed because the last two penalties were not good. He changed and tried in training. I did not know how he would shoot. He choose this and it goes really well. Strong personality and character. It is not easy in the semi-final of the Champions League to do a penalty like this."
Ancelotti is worried about how easily City got in behind their defence but is taking the positives that they were clinical at the other end.
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He told BT Sport: "I am a supporter of football of course. It was a fantastic game. As manager of Real Madrid I have to take into consideration that we scored three goals, which is really important. We didn't defend well. We can do better. We concede two goals early in the game and then we are able to react really well. We kept the game open until the end.
"Now we have a great dream to play the second game in the Bernabeu and we hope to have the chance to go to the final. The first 20 minutes were really difficult but slowly we were able to come back into the game to keep qualification open.
"We need this [some magic] as we are going to play against a really strong team. We competed today and we need to do that more in our stadium."
