Benzema scores farewell goal for Real who secure second place ahead of rivals Atletico
Real Madrid 1 Athletic Bilbao 1
Karim Benzema marked his Real Madrid farewell by scoring from the penalty spot as Los Blancos recovered from a goal down to salvage a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao. Carlo Ancelotti’s men retained second place in the LaLiga table ahead of city rivals Atletico Madrid regardless, while Los Leones missed out on European football altogether.
As the Santiago Bernabeu crowd waved goodbye to one of their greatest ever players, Real were looking to end a disappointing season on a high. Los Blancos hardly flew out of the traps though, and were indebted to their goalkeeper for keeping them on level terms in the early going.
After Inaki Williams’ header struck Toni Kroos’ outstretched arm inside the area, the referee showed no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Mikel Vesga stepped up from 12 yards, but his spot-kick was emphatically saved by Thibaut Courtois.
The contest carried the tempo of an end of season fixture, with clear-cut chances at a premium. The hosts were particularly poor, reliant on the mercurial Vinícius Junior for their best sight at goal, as his low driven effort towards the near post was thwarted by Unai Simon.
Courtois remained the busier goalkeeper throughout the half, and showed his impressive shot stopping capabilities once more as he parried Yuri Berchiche’s powerful strike.
Ernesto Valverde’s men remained determined to attack after the restart and were finally rewarded with an opening goal.
Real were caught in possession in their own half and Bilbao capitalised through Oihan Sancet, who was first to react and rifle home at the near post after his initial shot was stopped by Courtois.
The Belgian goalkeeper was becoming increasingly frustrated by his side’s insipid defending as he lunged forward to stop Inaki Williams from doubling the visitors’ lead.
Eder Militao acted as head cheerleader as he attempted to inject some life into his teammates, and the Brazilian was at the heart of their late revival, winning a penalty after being struck by the wayward arm of Berchiche.
There was only ever one man to step up from the spot, and Benzema made no mistake in slotting home from 12 yards for his 354th and final goal in the famous white shirt.
That would be the Frenchman’s final contribution as a Real player, and without him Ancelotti’s men looked devoid of ideas in their pursuit of a winner. Bilbao looked the likelier to find a decisive strike, but substitute Alex Berenguer proved wasteful in the final third, while Rodrygo spurned a glorious chance to win it for the hosts late on.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Oihan Sancet (Athletic Bilbao)
Check out the stats from the game with Flashscore.
Villarreal 2 Atletico Madrid 2
Ten-man Atletico Madrid were forced to settle for a third-place finish in LaLiga after they spurned the lead in a 2-2 draw against Villarreal, in turn marking the eighth stalemate in the last 16 encounters.
With Villarreal’s fifth-place finish in LaLiga already assured heading into this final day, you’d be forgiven for expecting them to be on the proverbial beach. That wasn’t proving to be the case in the early stages though, and despite Atleti needing a win to have any chance of leapfrogging city rivals Real into second, it was the Yellow Submarine who started fastest.
So fast in fact they took the lead inside 10 minutes, with May’s LaLiga player of the month Nicolas Jackson extending his rich vein of form to fire the hosts ahead.
Now seemingly more aware of the task in hand, falling behind seemed to spark Atletico into life. A smartly worked free-kick routine allowed them to manufacture a route back into the game, with Antoine Griezmann’s cute cut-back perfectly teeing up Angel Correa to level the scores.
The visitors were starting to assert their dominance on proceedings following that equaliser but came within a lick of paint of trailing at the break when Etienne Capoue’s effort crashed back off the crossbar.
As news filtered through that Real Madrid were trailing against Athletic, there was now added emphasis on Diego Simeone’s men to find that elusive goal, and that proved to be just the tonic needed to nose ahead and provisionally jump into second place.
It was the same dynamic duo involved in Atletico’s first behind their second too, as Griezmann’s measured ball was latched upon by Correa who made no mistake in rounding Filip Jorgensen and rolling the ball into an empty net.
Things seemed plain sailing at that moment, but as Axel Witsel’s red card for the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity coincided with a Real equaliser, Atlético were suddenly twitching.
Simeone’s men certainly rode their luck in attempting to see out victory, and their fortune ran out in stoppage time when Jorge Pascual pounced on a loose ball in the area to slam home a stoppage-time leveller and ensure Madrid bragging rights belong to the white side of the city.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
