Karim Benzema spoke about the alleged fight with Marcelo Gallardo in Saudi Arabia: “I have no problem”

Karim Benzema has spoken for the first time about his strained relationship with Marcelo Gallardo. The one born after the former River coach sidelined the Frenchman from Al Ittihad’s preseason in Saudi Arabia, as punishment for the 36-year-old striker’s apparent lack of commitment at the beginning of the year, who arrived several days later than expected.

The French striker started for the second time this year and scored a goal, although he also provided an assist, in his team’s hard-fought qualification for the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions, after beating 2- 1 the Navbahor against Uzbekistan.

“I have no problem with coach Gallardo and everything that has been written is a lie”, expressed the former Real Madrid player. On the other hand, he denied the rumors linking him Olympic Lyon AND Chelsea to return to the Old Continent: “Everything that says I want to go to Europe in winter is a lie”.

In the next round, Al-Ittihad will face Al Hilal, a team full of stars, such as Brazilian star Neymar, Moroccan goalkeeper Bono, Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly and Portuguese Rubén Neves, among others.

The mistake Benzema starred in against Navbahor

25 minutes had passed in the second leg of the series, which began with a 0-0 away draw and with the left foot, because the striker Karim Benzema himself committed an unfortunate action and scored the Uzbek team’s goal into his own goal.

What happened was the result of an attempt to clear a cross from the Frenchman, who ultimately ended up sending the ball into his own goal and giving Navbahor the lead.

Luckily for Benzema, his team managed to overturn the result thanks to goals from Abderrazak Hamdallah and Toma Tabatadze (with an unusual goal against) to ensure passage to the next round of the Champions League on the Asian continent.