Carlo Ancelotti has revealed that Karim Benzema 's decision to do a panenka for his penalty against Manchester City had been a special plan.
Benzema converted a spot-kick with eight minutes remaining to hand Real Madrid hope for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final. While City were dominant at the Etihad in the first leg, they will only take a one goal advantage into the return fixture at the Bernabeu.
Aymeric Laporte had seen the ball strike his hand after a cross came into the box, with referee Istvan Kovacs pointing to the penalty spot. Benzema has been Madrid's talisman on their run to the semi-finals, scoring hat-tricks against both Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.
Despite that, it was somewhat of a surprise to see him step up to take the spot-kick against City, given the fact he had missed two penalties in his last game. Against Osasuna, Benzema had two chances to score from the spot within seven minutes, but failed to convert either.
First, he nonchalantly wandered up and drilled the ball towards the bottom-left corner, but Sergio Herrera guessed right to parry away. Seven minutes later, almost the exact same thing happened, with Benzema again sending it to the keeper's right, and Herrera again tipping it around the post.
As a result of those two misses, Ancelotti revealed that Benzema came up with a plan in case Los Blancos were awarded a penalty against City. The Italian explained that the Frenchman had already decided to go down the middle before the game.
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"We have never thought about changing the one who is going to take the penalties, we have all the confidence, he has changed because now they are waiting for him on the right and he has put him in the center of the goal," Ancelotti said.
"Everything is fine, what can I say. We are waiting for the Bernabéu, the magic of the Bernabeu. For us, we came out of this first game with a result that is not good, because we have conceded four goals we have not defended well.
"We have hurt him with the ball, what we have to do is defend better, it is a result that can change in the lap, it is a very strong team, it has shown it tonight but we have competed. Defending better is the key to go to the final.
"With the ball we have had opportunities, we have suffered a little in the exit of the ball. But we have to have confidence. Manchester City is a team that plays very well, the bad thing is that they have scored four against us, the good thing is that we have scored three."
Benzema will hope to get back on the scoresheet again next Wednesday when City travel to the Spanish capital for the second leg. Away goals do not count for any extra in this year's edition of the Champions League, meaning Madrid must win by two goals to go through without a shootout.
