Real’s Benzema ruled out of Lyon clash – press

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema will miss Wednesday’s Champions League clash with his old club Lyon due to a groin strain, Spanish newspapers reported.

The Frenchman has not played since Real suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Lyon in their last-16 first-leg match in France on February 16.

He is expected to be out of action for a further two weeks, meaning he will miss the return leg in Madrid on Wednesday, sports newspapers AS and Marca said Monday.

The 22-year-old joined Real from Lyon, his boyhood club, for 35 million euros in July last year.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are under pressure to bring the Champions League trophy back to Madrid after spending vast sums on big signings such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema.

The Spanish giants have fallen at the last-16 stage in the past five seasons and have not won Europe’s most-coveted trophy since 2002 when they beat Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in Glasgow.