The Frenchman now has 157 Primera Division goals, good for sixth place all-time, but has some way to go to break into the top five
Karim Benzema scored a first half brace as Real Madrid raced to a 3-0 half time lead over Eibar and surpassed a club legend for sixth place on Los Blancos La Liga scoring list.
The 31-year-old’s second goal was his 157th for Real and it took him past Ferenc Puskas to sit just outside the five most prolific goalscorers in the vaunted history of the Spanish giants.
Benzema scored Real’s second penalty of the first period just before the half hour mark to overhaul the Hungarian legend’s tally.
The former France international opened the scoring just 10 minutes prior, bundling home from a tight angle, before captain Sergio Ramos scored his team’s first spot kick.
A win over Eibar would see Real ascend to the top of the table, at least until rivals Barcelona play Celta Vigo later on Saturday.
Benzema may have surpassed Puskas’s tally but he took almost twice as long to do so. He has now played 323 league games in a decade in the Spanish capital, his predecessor notched his goals in 180 games.
Next in Benzema’s sights is Hugo Sanchez. The Mexico legend scored 164 goals for Madrid, appearing 207 times in the famed white strip.
The former Lyon man will back himself to surpass fifth-placed Santillana’s total. The Spaniard banged home 186 goals in over 400 games in the top flight between 1971-88.
After Santillana Benzema has his work cut out. The top three goalscorers for Madrid in La Liga have all scored well north of 200 goals in the competition.
In third place is Puskas’s team-mate Alfredo di Stefano, who scored 216 times. The current Madrid front-man did surpass the Argentine’s record of European goals this week while scoring his 50th in continental competition.
12 ahead of Di Stefano is a man Benzema, who moved to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2009, played alongside albeit briefly. Raul, who left Madrid in 2010 did so having scored 228 times in the Primera Division.
Ahead of Raul is a player who joined at the same time as Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portugal superstar scored 311 La Liga goals, in just 292 games, before moving to Juventus in 2018.
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