Rafa Benitez 'Sure' Karim Benzema Will Stay In Real Madrid

Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez has declared with certainty that striker Karim Benzema will stay at Bernabeu. Benitez, who was appointed as Real coach after the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti, is confident the 27-year-old Benzema will be part of Los Blancos next season despite reported interest from Arsenal.

The 55-year-old Benitez said that he is “sure” Benzema will stay with Real as reported by Goal.com. Benzema, who has scored a total of 15 goals in 29 appearances with La Liga, has been linked with Arsenal throughout his career in Real.

"People are asking me about different players that maybe we will buy and I always say the same thing, 'he's not our player, I will not talk about that',” Benitez added.

Benzema scored in Real’s 4-1 win over Manchester City in their preseason friendly on Friday. The French international opened the scoring for Real before Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo put the Spanish club 3-0 ahead in the early moments of the game.

Meanwhile, Benitez also echoed his sentiments about reports that Ronaldo was displeased with him. The Spanish coach is convinced that his relationship with Ronaldo is well after the Portuguese footballer was caught by Spanish TV cameras showing annoyance with the coach’s new training methods during a practice session. Benitez reiterated that “everything is fine”, adding that Ronaldo has been “happy and playing well” with the team.

"The main thing is the team, the main thing is to see all the team playing well,” Benitez said as noted by Fox Sports. "Obviously Cristiano, Gareth (Bale), Karim Benzema and Isco, all these players, if they play and find each other then the team will play much better and today that was the case."

Real was crowned champs in the International Championship Cup in Melbourne after running easy winners against City in front of more than 99,000 fans. Los Blancos scored all of its three goals in the first half before coming up with the exclamation point in the 74th minute mark.

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