Karim Benzema silenced the raucous Spotify Camp Nou crowd tonight as Real Madrid cruised to the final of the Spanish Copa Del Rey in style at the home of their bitter rivals, Barcelona.

Just 3 days ago, Benzema starred in Madrid’s 6-nil obliteration of Real Valladolid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, and today against Barça, the Frenchman struck three times again to send the Catalans packing.

 

 

The first leg of this semi-final tie ended in a 1-0 win for Barça thanks to Eder Militao’s own goal. However, Barça who started brightly tonight saw their slender lead cancelled out by Vinicius Junior on the stroke of halftime.

After the break, Benzema rose to the occasion with a hat-trick to become the first Real Madrid player to score thrice in a single match at the Camp Nou since Ferenc Puskás in 1963 (some 60 years ago).

 

 

Seeing how his former teammate singlehandedly crushed Barcelona’s hopes of a domestic double, Mesut Ozil took to his official Twitter handle to hail Benzema as the “best No 9 of our generation”.