During Al-Ittihad’s rout against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr (5-2), Tuesday evening in Saudi Arabia, Karim Benzema gave a penalty to his former Real Madrid teammate by committing a gross foul in front of his goal .
Criticized for his performances with Al-Ittihad in recent weeks, the reigning Saudi Arabian champion having a bad season, Karim Benzema did not live up to his legend during the shock lost against Al-Nassr (2-5 ), Tuesday evening in Jeddah. The 2022 Ballon d’Or did not score his 10th goal and, if he is credited with an assist for Abderrazak Hamdallah at the start of the match, the Moroccan striker mostly went alone to open the scoring (14th).
Five minutes later, “KB9” made a mistake in front of his own goal. While trying to clear the ball, he violently hit the foot of an opposing defender, Ali Lajami. The Lyonnais did not understand the whistle of the Greek referee, Mr. Kostaras, but the penalty was quite logical and Cristiano Ronaldo, his former teammate at Real Madrid, was quick to convert the penalty kick for the equalizer (19th).
Penalty for Al Nassr following a foul by Karim Benzema!
— SPL 🇸🇦 (@ActuSPL) December 26, 2023
After sinking in the second half, Fabinho seeing red to also give Ronaldo a penalty (67th), before a double from Sadio Mané (76th and 82nd), Al-Ittihad recorded its sixth defeat in 18 days. Its sixth place in the ranking is very worrying, the team led by Marcelo Gallardo has 22 points less than the leader, 15 less than Al-Nassr and even nine less than Al-Ahli, the current third and last qualifier for the next Asian Champions League.
