Refusing The Assumption Of His First Goal Because Of A Blunder By Donnarumma, Benzema: It's Not His Fault, It's The Pressure Of The Whole Team

Karim Benzema (Twitter @realmadrid)

JAKARTA - Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, who scored a hat-trick against Paris Saint Germain in the second leg of the Champions League last 16, rejected his first goal due to a blunder by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

"It was not [Donnarumma's] fault. It was pressure from the whole team," the French player said in an interview after the match on the Champions League website, Thursday morning, quoted by Antara.

Benzema's hat-trick made Madrid not only overturned 0-1 down in the first half but also made Madrid win 3-1 to qualify for the quarter-finals with a 3-2 aggregate.

He dedicates his three goals and the Madrid victory and to the Madrid fans.

"We need supporters and this is for them. It was a very tough game but we kept pushing until the end and we deserved to win," said Benzema.

"We lost the first leg, they were leading 1-0, but our fans kept giving us everything until the final whistle."

Paris Saint Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino himself saw his team deserved to win and emerged as the better team, but Benzema's first goal changed the course of the game.

"Paris Saint-Germain has now been chasing the Champions League title for years. I am very disappointed, angry, but anything can happen. The next few weeks will not be easy," said Pochettino.

"The first goal," he continued, "completely changed the game."

"For an hour we were better than Real Madrid. The atmosphere changed in the stadium. We made a lot of mistakes after that, we can't say we didn't do anything wrong."

"The worst feeling was that we were the better team, but we were beaten within 10 minutes."