Karim Benzema scored a penalty in his final game for Real Madrid in his side's 1-1 draw with Athletic Club at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Benzema's goal was his 354th and final goal for Los Blancos as they came from bejind to secure a point on matchday 38 of the La Liga season. The draw means that Real Madrid secured a second place finish behind Barcelona.
Inside the opening ten minutes Real Madrid gifted visitors Athletic Club a glorious chance to open the scoring from the spot. A Toni Kroos handball - while his back was turned and Nico Williams headed the ball off his arm - would be punished with a penalty rather harshly, and justice was perhaps done from the resulting spot kick as Mikel Vesga saw his effort saved by Thibaut Courtois.
Los Blancos would almost make Athletic rue that missed penalty in the 24th minute when Vinicius, in typical Vinicius fashion, cut in from the right and unleashed a venomous strike goalward. The ball seemed destined to nestle in the bottom left corner of the net, however, Unai Simon was able to dive quickly down to flick the ball clear of danger.
At the other end, Courtois was then forced into another decent save. The Real Madrid number one had to be at full stretch to tip a Yuri Berchiche strike over the crossbar.
The battle of the goalkeepers continued throughout the rest of the first half, with Simon reading a Vinicius run across the six-yard line to tip the ball off the Brazilian's toe before he could have a pop at goal.
At the start of the second half, the deadlock was finally broken.
And it was broken by the visitors with Oihan Sancet firing home at the second time of asking after Dani Cabellos was dispossessed inside his own defensive third.
It was so nearly 2-0 just ten minutes later when Inaki Williams found himself clean through on goal. After charging into the right hand side of the penalty area, however, he was his subsequent powerful effort on goal wonderfully saved by Courtois.
Following a rather tepid second half showing, Los Blancos were gifted a lifeline in the game thanks to Yuri inadvertantly elbowing Eder Militao when competing a loose ball in the box. Karim Benzema would step up to take the resulting spot kick and would make no mistake with it - firing into the middle of the net.
Real Madrid would then spurn a glorious chance to win the game in the 89th minute. A mazy run from Vinicius in which he drifted past three players culminated in the Brazilian cutting the ball back to Rodrygo on the edge of the six yard box. Rodrygo, amazingly, could only dig the ball out of the turf and over the crossbar from point blank range with his first-time strike.
Real Madrid player ratings
GK - Thibaut Courtois - 9/10 - Brilliant penalty save early in the game and his form continued from then on as he made seven saves throughout the 90.
RB - Dani Carvajal - 4/10 - Very loose in possession at times. Not his greatest outing.
CB - Eder Militao - 6/10 - Won the penalty which got Real Madrid back in the game.
CB - Antonio Rudiger - 5/10 - Caught out a few times by Inaki's pace.
LB - Nacho Fernandez - 6/10 - Defended pretty well on his side, but could've got forward with a bit more intent than he did.
CM - Toni Kroos - 6/10 - Was harshly penalised for a handball in the penalty area. As per, kept things ticking over in the middle of the park.
CM - Eduardo Camavinga - 5/10 - He's quite simply a better left-back than he is a central midfielder.
CM - Dani Ceballos - 3/10 - You wouldn't have known he was on the pitch until the 49th minute when he lost the ball in the lead up to Athletic Club's opener. Nice one.
RW - Rodrygo - 6/10 - Missed a glorious chance to win the game late on.
ST - Karim Benzema - 7/10 - He did exactly what we all expected him to do in his final game for Real Madrid: he scored a goal.
LW - Vinicius Junior - 8/10 - He was the life and soul of Real Madrid's attack throughout. A wonderfully fun performance from a wonderfully fun footballer.
Substitutes
Marco Asensio - 6/10 - Put in a decent showing in his final game for the club.
Aurelien Tchouameni - N/A.
Luka Modric - N/A.
Lucas Vazquez - N/A.
Manager - Carlo Ancelotti - 6/10 - The midfield he put out was definitely not his strongest and it cost Real Madrid at times during the game. It was a nice touch to give Benzema and Asensio proper goodbyes with late substitutions though.
Man of the match: Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
This article was originally published on 90min as Real Madrid 1-1 Athletic Club: Player ratings as Karim Benzema scores in final Los Blancos game.
