As you would expect for a game of just incredible magnitude, there will be mouthwatering matchups across the field when Liverpool take on Real Madrid in Saturday’s Champions League final.
Don’t expect to see either player take a backwards step when Madrid left-winger Vinicius Jr faces up to Liverpool’s right-back and creative fulcrum Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The midfield battle between Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara - providing the Liverpool duo can get close to full match sharpness following recent fitness setbacks - and pass masters Luka Modric and Toni Kroos promises to be intriguing, while on the left-hand side of Madrid’s defence Ferland Mendy must repel a fired up Mohamed Salah with revenge in his nostrils.
But it is the joust in the other penalty area that captures the imagination more than any other. Michael Owen might have been over-egging things slightly when he declared Virgil van Dijk to be the greatest central defender of all time earlier this month, but his claim to being the best in the position right now is pretty iron-clad.
Facing him at the Stade de France this weekend will be Karim Benzema. There is not a number nine in world football with a more impressive body of work or breadth of impeccable skills than Real Madrid’s star frontman.
How many goals has Karim Benzema scored this season?
Including Madrid’s two games in the Supercopa de Espana, Benzema has 44 goals in 45 appearances across all competitions in 2021/22. In the Champions League, bolstered by his incredible back-to-back hat-tricks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, he has 15 in 11 outings.
He also scored three times over the course of the remarkable semi-final tie with Manchester City, netting the decisive goal as he did versus PSG and Chelsea to move to within touching distance of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League single-season record of 17.
When Ronaldo amassed that haul in 2013/14, Benzema was a key member of the supporting cast and one of the Portugual superstar’s main facilitators. There is now no doubt whatsoever over who is the main man.
Among players across Europe’s big five leagues this term, only Robert Lewandowski (48) has scored more than Benzema. Looking at forwards who have scored 20 or more goals, Benzema’s minutes-per-goal figure of 86 comes in third behind Lewandowski (79.73) and Erling Haaland (84.68). Patrik Schick, another Bundesliga forward, is the only other player to average better than a goal every 90 minutes among that group of players.
The France striker’s shot conversion rate tallies at an impressive 24.14%, while he has hugely outperformed his expected goals (xG) figure of 32.72 (as per Opta). Even allowing for some of the sublime talents he plays alongside, Madrid are a hugely depleted side without him — their win percentage of 72.1 in games with Benzema this season dropping to 42.9 when he’s not around.
What is Liverpool’s record with and without Virgil van Dijk?
If Madrid found a solution from within after Ronaldo’s 2018 departure to Juventus, Liverpool spent big and spent very well indeed earlier that year to address some very obvious shortcomings. Van Dijk became the most expensive defender in history at the time he joined Liverpool from Southampton for £75million.
The Netherlands international instantly lifted a previously suspect defence and his mid-season arrival was part of the reason Liverpool reached the 2018 Champions League final. They lost 3-1 to Madrid in Kyiv, but Jurgen Klopp’s moves to add goalkeeper Alisson behind Van Dijk and holding midfielder Fabinho in front of him during the subsequent close season truly gave Liverpool the solid spine they needed.
They returned to the Champions League final to beat Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid a year later, but Liverpool’s relentless Premier League form since is the true testament to their relentless brilliance. They won the title with a 99-point haul in 2019/20, while 97 and 92 left them a point shy of Manchester City in 2018/19 and 2021/22.
The outlier came last season, when they stumbled to third with a relatively paltry 69 points. Van Dijk missed the majority of that campaign with knee ligament damage and Liverpool are hugely diminished without him marshalling their backline.
Since the start of the 2018/19 season, Liverpool have won 113 of the 149 games where Van Dijk has been involved, for a win percentage of 75.8, losing 16 in that time. That plummets to 55.9% in the 59 games without him, where Klopp’s men won 33 and lost 12. It is no surprise he has been wrapped in cotton wool since limping out of the FA Cup final against Chelsea earlier this month.
Benzema vs. Van Dijk - expert breakdown
For all that the performance of each man will have a huge influence upon the eventual outcome of the final, do not expect them to engage in frequent one-on-one combat. Both of them, Benzema in particular, are too cute for that.
“Based on the way that Real Madrid play and how good Benzema is, [for Van Dijk] it’s more about an understanding of ‘Where is he? What is he doing?’ and that type of stuff requires you to be alert and constantly in communication with the people around you,” former Manchester City and Real Salt Lake defender Nedum Onuoha told The Sporting News.
“For the first Rodrygo goal [against Manchester City], in Madrid in the second leg, Benzema is just hanging out at the back post [to get the assist] and he’s doing that because everyone is looking left.
“The best strikers, that’s what they do; when you look away, they come alive. You can hope that you have a match-up where he’s directly in front of you the whole time, but Benzema knows that’s not going to be worthwhile. He’s not quicker than Van Dijk, he’s not stronger than Van Dijk, he’s not better in the air than Van Dijk.”
The numbers certainly back this up. This season, Van Dijk has won an average of 4.53 duels per 90 minutes and 3.55 aerial duels. Benzema’s figures on those metrics are 2.44 and 0.62 respectively.
So should Van Dijk, in the old-fashioned parlance, simply “stick it on” Madrid’s number nine? Well, not exactly.
“It’s a case of understanding the battle you’re going to have isn’t necessarily going to be a physical one, it’s going to be a mental one,” Onuoha explained. “It’s more a case of being in tune to watching his clips and seeing what his tendencies are. As good as he is, everyone has tendencies, so understand his tendencies and know that when you enter the game you’re going to try and take some of those away from him, make him go outside of his comfort zone.
“With Van Dijk, if he thinks it’s going to be a game where he follows him around and is trying to press him whenever he can, then it plays into Benzema’s hands because it’ll create space for other people.
“But it is about just making sure those people around you are very well organised and making sure the people in front of you are applying as much pressure to the midfield as possible because then the quality of service won’t be as good.”
The extent to which Fabinho and Thiago are fit and able to play a full part in Liverpool dictating terms at the Stade de France feels key in this respect, while Benzema will seek to do plenty of his work outside of Van Dijk’s orbit.
“I don't think he'll put himself up against Virgil van Dijk," former Arsenal midfielder and ESPN analyst Stewart Robson told The Sporting News. "When he receives the ball, very rarely is it as a centre-forward.
“He’ll drift out wide, he’ll go deeper, he’ll link up the play and then when it goes wide he makes his way into the box, but usually not up against a defender - it’s the holding midfielder he’s running off the back of.
“He finds that space between the midfield and the defenders. That’s what he does so well. It’s going to need good communication between Liverpool’s centre-backs and Fabinho to talk to the centre-backs as well. He’s difficult to pick up because he goes here, there and everywhere and that's why he's been so successful this season.”
It will require a collective effort from Liverpool and they have one of the best in the business when it comes to organising that effectively, if not a superman who should be expected to do this all by himself.
“At some point, you know you’re going to lose one battle; the most important thing is to win the war," former France and Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf told The Sporting News. "And that needs help from your team-mates as well - [Andy] Robertson or Matip or Konate, depending who plays alongside Van Dijk.
“But Van Dijk is also a spectacular player and I’m sure Benzema is saying to himself ‘I have to cope with that giant guy who’s fast and he’s strong’. Remember that season when we were told that no one took on Van Dijk all season long?
“He can make mistakes, we all make mistakes. We can emphasise the fact that suddenly he goes too much up and the ball goes behind him, but it’s not going to be easy for Benzema. Cearly it’s not going to be easy for Van Dijk.
“In defence you don’t work individually, you work with all your teammates. People in the middle of the park are going to have to help as well because Benzema comes short, [Van Dijk] will have to talk to Fabinho and [Jordan] Henderson and they will have to pick up Benzema in order for Van Dijk to cover Robertson or Alexander-Arnold. It’s about teamwork.”
Throughout an incredible run to the final, Madrid have proved themselves to be the ultimate moments team, with Benzema their man for the biggest moments. In Van Dijk, Liverpool have the perfect man to face down a challenge where it might be best not to blink. Don’t take your eyes off this one.
