The 23 year old striker has achieved a lot is his career. This can be attributed to his humble nature and the fact that he is an extremely mature person who works diligently to excel. He is extremely loyal and this can be judged from his career. He started playing football with Olympique Lyonnais, when he was 9 years old, in 1996 and stayed with the club for 13 years. He was transferred from Lyon to Real Madrid in 2009 and even with his new club he signed a long term contract of 6 years.

Karim Benzema started his football career with a domestic club and later joined Olympique Lyonnais – the biggest club of the city. He started playing with the club when he was 9 years old and progressed through the ranks of the club fairly quickly. He was able to make his professional debut in the 2004 – 2005 season and played on and off during the season.

Benzema made his mark in the season of 2007 – 2008 when he scored 30 goals over the season to guide his team to winning their 7th successive league title. It was a magnificent year for Benzema indeed as he was the center of attention all around and the highlight of the season was him being named the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Year award.

His services acquired by Real Madrid in 2009 for a six year contract. The start of the 2010 – 2011 season was disappointing for Benzema as he failed to make any regular appearances for the team and was only used as an occasional striker. However, the injury of his team mate Higuain meant that Benzema was to take the responsibility of Higuain’s shoes. Benzema grasped the opportunity with both hands and performed remarkably in the role of the first choice striker of the team. The sale of the Real Madrid Tickets increased majorly because of his spectacular performances.

Benzema played a key role in the Real Madrid’s Copa Del Rey. It was a match for which the Real Madrid Tickets were extremely difficult to procure for the fans. His overall superb run of performances throughout the year of 2011 led him to winning the award of French Player of the Year.

This led to everyone having high expectations from the young French striker for the next season of 2011-2012. Benzema certainly didn’t disappointed his fans with his brilliant pre season performance in which he scored a total of 8 goals in 7 matches. Benzema went to score the fastest goal in the history of El Clasico. He scored the remarkable goal in just 22 seconds to distinguish himself prominently in the history of El Clasico. He performed remarkably throughout the match and his goal gave his team an early edge in the game. However, Real Madrid failed to capitalize and lost the match 2-1.

Benzema has also represented his national side of France at the youth and international level. His brilliant performances have made him the center of much speculation – Will he take his team to the ultimate glory in the next FIFA World Cup?

Lyon is a city in the east central France. It is situated in the Rhône-Alpes which lie between Paris and Marseille. The residents (inhabitants) of the city are called Lyonnais (singular and plural).

Lyon has developed into a major center of business as a reputed French capital of gastronomy. The city has a significant development in cinema due to Auguste and Louis Lumière. The Lyon’s football team is Olympique Lyonnais which has participated in European Football Championships. This has brought fame and established Lyon on the map of Europe. This city is the capital of the Rhône-Alpes région. It has various historical and architectural landmarks which are recognized as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

It was historically known as silk capital of the world and is now known as culinary capital of world. International headquarters of Interpol, Euro news and International Agency for Research on Cancer are situated here. Lyon is also a pivot city for the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme.

Economy:

Lyon is second richest city of the France after Paris. This region along with Rhône-Alpes is one of the most important economies of Europe and can be compared to the economies of Bombay (according to a leading university) due to its international presence. This city is currently working to develop it into a better place for business purposes.

Tourism industry contributes a large part of Lyon’s GDP. According to visitor’s reviews, the hotels of Lyon are ranked #1 in entire France. Main festival of this city is Fête des lumières, which is also known as the festival of lights and is very popular amongst tourists.

Transport:

Air Travel –

The city has an airport which serves both international and national flights. It is located 20km east of Lyon and is known as Saint Exupery International Airport. The airport is also connected through its own TGV network.

Road –

The city has a very dense network of roadways and is also the centre point of many of the highways. These highways include A6 to Paris, A7 to Marseille, A42 to Geneve and A43 to Grenoble

Rail Travel –

This city is connected to north and south with the help of TGV network. Lyon was connected to Paris in 1981 by the TGV. The city has two major railway station known as Lyon Part Dieu and Lyon Perrache which were built for the regional railway services.

Following a blatant handball by a Lyon defender that the referees failed to call, Jose Mourinho made the obvious substitution and decided to take out Emmanuel Adebayor, who was playing as Real Madrid’s lone (and extremely ineffective) striker, and put Karim Benzema on the field. Ozil and Benzema then forced the ball from a Lyon player, Ozil passed to Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo passed it to Benzema. Benzema then refused to give the ball to anyone, on either team, ran parallel to the goal, and let go of a well-aimed strike that sailed into the back corner of Lyon’s goal, of his former team’s goal.

Karim Benzema has five goals in this UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid suddenly felt like they had the win. Until that goal, which came in the 66th minute, RM and Olympique Lyonnais were at each other’s throats during the Round of 16 encounter yesterday at the Stade de Gerland. There were strong kicks and arguments, and physical play was in abundance.

The match was supposed to be RM’s revenge after Lyon, a minnow that barely made it onto RM’s map last season, managed to defeat RM in the Round of 16 tie of last year’s UEFA Champions League. And, when Karim Benzema, a former Lyon player, came on and proved Fiorentino Perez, RM’s president, right, RM felt like the win was theirs. Suddenly, Ozil was subbed out for Marcelo, one of RM’s most over-rated players, a defensive left wing whose defense is so poor that he went on yesterday as a midfielder. That should have been a signal, because it meant that Mourinho, RM’s head coach, was going for an all or nothing win.

Yesterday, when previewing this match, I wrote that RM’s biggest fault is its confidence. So, when they went into all-out attack mode, after an hour of measuring up Lyon’s strengths and weaknesses, and of playing against Lyon with respect, and after respectfully scoring a goal against Lyon, I got a little worried. If a system was working and if it was clear that Real Madrid could score against Lyon without going all-out, and if Lyon should have been the one to attack, being down by one goal, why was Real Madrid suddenly advancing its lines just a bit? And then, of course, it would be a foul by Marcelo, one of the most over-rated players. Of course, the goal would come from a free kick following a stupid and careless foul by Marcelo.

Gomis scored Lyon’s goal in the 83rd minute. Only a minute later, Marcelo lost the ball again and it would have been a very dangerous play, yet again, for Real Madrid had it not been for dumb luck that the team won the ball back. Real Madrid continued its attacks for the remainder of the match but the draw was there. They retain an away goal advantage over Lyon but should they lose by 1-0 in Madrid on March 16, that away goal will not be worth very much.

As Lyon showed throughout the match, they are up to scoring against Real Madrid and know how to attack the Spanish giants from the wings and to use the counter-attack effectively. Unfortunately for Lyon, they wasted most of the first half with bland attacks that were rarely threatening for goal-keeper Iker Casillas. The match in Madrid will be a fascinating one, given the fact that the first leg was, so far, one of the most evenly matched and exciting matches of the entire Round of 16. However, Real Madrid will know that they have now gone seven matches without defeating Lyon and that they had victory in their hands, and then they threw it away. Lyon might just advance (again).