John Aldridge: "Benzema is like a good bottle of Rioja"

PARIS, May 26. (dpa/EP) -

Former Liverpool player John Aldridge compared Real Madrid's French striker Karim Benzema to "a good bottle of Rioja" that gets better over the years and has "matured a lot and well, and it's expensive".

"I've always thought Benzema was a good player, but what he's done in the last two seasons and how they've overcame the departures of great players has made him look like a bottle of wine," Aldridge told Stats Perform earlier. of this Saturday's Champions League final.

The Briton assured that Benzema "has good football on his mind". "All I can say is that it's like a good bottle of Rioja, red, that is. It has matured a lot and very well. And it's very expensive," said the former 'red' player.

The former Real Sociedad player declared that he played until he was 40 years old and that he understands what is happening to the Frenchman. "He has matured very well, he gets better with age, which happened to me too, I developed late. I realized that the older he was and the more experience he gained, the better he played", he underlined.

"You can't leave room for Benzema in the box, he's his main threat. But when you have Mane, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and Salah, they have something to worry about too," he warned of Liverpool's dangers.

Aldridge stressed that Real Madrid "have good players all over the field" and highlighted the importance of Luka Modric. "What a player, what a good player he is, no matter how old he is. I saw him play against Manchester City and you can let him take the reins," he said.

"I've seen him lead Tottenham against Liverpool in one of the best performances I've ever seen from an away player. It was years ago, they beat us and he was unbelievable. You can't leave him any space, you have to watch the space behind from Trent Alexander-Arnold, which they will obviously try to exploit with the speed of Vinicius," Aldridge explained.