Left out of the group for the Al-Ittihad Champions League match on Thursday, Karim Benzema was the subject of an update from his coach Marcelo Gallardo.
Al-Ittihad meets Navbahor Namangan this Thursday in the round of 16 first leg of the Asian Champions League. A match that the Jeddah club will once again tackle without Karim Benzema, who was not selected by Marcelo Gallardo for this trip to Uzbekistan.
Officially, the former Merengue is suffering from physical problems. Only the Argentinian strategist is not the type to give in the language of wood; he also clarified this Wednesday the reasons for the absence of his presumed best offensive asset. Without even mentioning the excuse of the limitation to five non-Asian elements in C1: in this case for this match the Brazilians Fabinho and Romarinho, the Moroccan Abderrazak Hamdallah, the Egyptian Ahmed Hegazy and N’Golo Kanté.
A “purely technical” decision
Marcelo Gallardo thus puts forward an explanation “ purely technical »: « He is currently training alone, after joining the team a few days ago. When he is physically and technically ready, he will undoubtedly join the group, most likely next week. »
The Saudi media have already had the opportunity to describe the cold relations between the two men, the Al-Ittihad coach not being satisfied with the investment of the former Lyonnais on a daily basis. Although he started his first season in the Saudi Pro League well, KB9 frankly declined in performance as the winter break approached, receiving numerous criticisms last December.
