John Aldridge has compared Real Madrid talisman Karim Benzema to a bottle of Rioja who has got better with age ahead of the Champions League final against Liverpool.
France striker Benzema has scored a staggering 44 goals in 45 appearances for Los Blancos this season.
The Madrid captain is the leading scorer in the 2021-22 Champions League, finding the back of the net 15 times in 11 matches – including back-to-back hat-tricks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.
Benzema s penalty settled a pulsating semi-final second leg against Manchester City and the 34-year-old also helped himself to a brace in the first leg.
Former Liverpool striker Aldridge spoke of his admiration for the prolific Benzema ahead of Saturday s Champions League showdown at Stade de France.
He told Stats Perform: I always thought that Benzema was a good player. But what he s done the last couple of years, and they ve had the big players leave, he s become like a bottle of wine.
He s matured very well. He s got better with age, which I did, because I was a late developer. I found the older I got, the more experience I got, the better I was.
I played until I was nearly 40. He has a great football brain and all I can say is, he’s like a nice bottle of Rioja, red, that is. He s matured very, very well. And it s very expensive.
Aldridge stressed that the Reds must not allow 36-year-old midfield maestro Luka Modric to dictate the final in Paris.
It s down the middle, we can hurt them in certain places, he said. Vinicius [Junior] and Benzema, for me are our main threat.
They have great players all over the pitch. In midfield, Modric, what a player, what a player he is, whatever age he is, I watched him against Man City, you let him run the show.
And I ve seen him run the show for Tottenham at Liverpool, one of the best appearances I ve ever seen from an away player. Some years ago, we got beat, and he was unbelievable.
So, you can t give him any room. You ve got to watch the space in behind Trent [Alexander-Arnold], obviously where they ll capitalise with the pace of Vinicius.
And Benzema, you can t give him any room in the box, they re the main threats. When you ve got [Sadio] Mane, [Diogo] Jota, [Luis] Diaz and [Mohamed] Salah, they ve got a little bit to think about as well.
Aldridge also hailed Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti, who won the LaLiga title for the first time this season after leaving Everton for a second spell in the Spanish capital.
He said: Apart from Everton? It s mad with Ancelotti, he went to Everton and walked away, and he got another crack at Madrid which to be quite honest, how that has happened is like, it s crazy isn t it?
And he s been brilliant. You have to say he s very intelligent, he s a class act, he s been in these occasions quite a few times as we know. He has set the stall out, he s right up there with the best coaches and managers in the world. Absolutely.
