Benzema plaudits: He's at the peak of his powers

The French newspaper L'Equipe was full of praise for Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema after his goal in Saturday night's Clasico victory against Barcelona.

Benzema has not played for the French national team since 2015, but he was rightly lauded for his incredible backheel finish past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

"[Benzema] is at the peak of his powers," L'Equipe wrote.

His goal, which opened the scoring, was described as "absolutely sublime", a "perfect backheel" and "one of the most beautiful [goals] of his career".

Benzema's backheel, his 25th goal of the season in all competitions, came after an "extremely intelligent piece of movement" from Fede Valverde and a "perfect cross" from Lucas Vazquez.

Zidane strengthened

L'Equipe also highlighted how the win against Barcelona strengthens the position Zinedine Zidane, after he had been on the verge of the sack "on three occasions", while Real Madrid now find themselves top of LaLiga Santander and are well placed to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Despite everything, they note that Zidane stayed "true to himself" by rejecting euphoria because, as he acknowledged, they are "at the limit physically".

On the other hand, L'Equipe claim that Barcelona duo Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann were "impotent" and "incapable of creating the slightest chance" in front of Real Madrid's goal.