PSG were delivering late European shocks to Real Madrid long before Karim Benzema returned the favor. His 2022 hat trick belongs among Madrid’s defining Champions League comebacks. It doesn’t explain the whole matchup.
Their men’s teams have met 13 times in competitive football, with five wins each and three draws. Eight meetings came in the Champions League, where Madrid lead four victories to two. The other five, spread across the UEFA Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and Club World Cup, change the balance.
1. PSG 4–1 Real Madrid — March 18, 1993
The first encounter came in a UEFA Cup quarterfinal in March 1993. Madrid won the opening leg 3–1 at the Bernabéu, giving Paris a two-goal deficit to recover at the Parc des Princes.
In the return on March 18, George Weah, David Ginola and Valdo put PSG 3–0 ahead. The third goal arrived late enough to leave Madrid little time to respond. Paris had overturned the first-leg deficit and were approaching the semifinals.
Then Iván Zamorano scored in stoppage time, leveling the aggregate score at 4–4. PSG had to win the tie again. Antoine Kombouaré met Valdo’s free kick with a header deep into added time, securing a 4–1 victory on the night and a 5–4 aggregate win. The last decisive touch belonged to a defender, after an evening shaped by the forwards.
2. Real Madrid 0–1 PSG — March 3, 1994
A year later, Paris didn’t need another rescue. Weah scored the only goal at the Bernabéu on March 3, 1994, this time in a Cup Winners’ Cup quarterfinal. A 1–1 draw in Paris completed a 2–1 aggregate victory. PSG had eliminated Madrid in successive seasons, across two different competitions.
3. Real Madrid 3–1 PSG — February 14, 2018
By February 14, 2018, the Champions League supplied a different ending. Adrien Rabiot gave PSG the lead in Madrid, but Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty before halftime brought his Champions League total for the Spanish club to 100. His second goal and Marcelo’s late finish turned a level match into a 3–1 Madrid win. Another 2–1 victory in Paris completed a 5–2 aggregate result. Ronaldo’s milestone was memorable, but the late goals gave Madrid their commanding advantage.
4. PSG 3–0 Real Madrid — September 18, 2019
Ángel Di María made the next meeting his own. Facing his former club in Paris on September 18, 2019, he scored in the 14th and 33rd minutes. Thomas Meunier added a stoppage-time third. PSG’s 3–0 group-stage victory was their largest Champions League win against Madrid, delivered with Di María at the center of the attack.
5. Real Madrid 2–2 PSG — November 26, 2019
The return that November offered a different kind of Paris escape. Benzema scored twice, his second arriving in the 79th minute to make it 2–0. Mbappé answered in the 81st, before Pablo Sarabia equalized in the 83rd. Madrid had established a two-goal cushion and lost it within four minutes. The 2–2 draw lacked the finality of a knockout result, but it gave PSG another recovery to set beside 1993.
6. PSG 1–0 Real Madrid — February 15, 2022
Courtois stood between PSG and a first-leg lead on February 15, 2022. He saved Lionel Messi’s penalty in the 62nd minute, then kept the score at 0–0 until stoppage time. Mbappé finally beat him in the 94th minute, squeezing through two defenders before driving his shot low beyond the goalkeeper. Paris won 1–0, with almost no time left for Madrid to answer.
7. Real Madrid 3–1 PSG — March 9, 2022
Mbappé scored again at the Bernabéu on March 9, putting Paris 2–0 ahead on aggregate. Benzema changed that calculation in the second half. His pressure on Gianluigi Donnarumma helped create the first goal, before Luka Modrić supplied the pass for his second. Almost immediately after the restart, Benzema completed his hat trick.
The goals came in the 61st, 76th and 78th minutes. Madrid won 3–1 on the night and 3–2 overall. PSG hadn’t simply conceded their first-leg advantage. They’d extended it through Mbappé, then lost the entire tie before the closing minutes.
8. PSG 4–0 Real Madrid — July 9, 2025
The largest winning margin between the clubs arrived on July 9, 2025, with Mbappé wearing Madrid white. In the Club World Cup semifinal, PSG’s rebuild after Mbappé’s departure was on display against his new team. Paris were 3–0 ahead after 24 minutes. Fabián Ruiz scored twice, with Ousmane Dembélé supplying the other early goal.
Madrid’s mistakes contributed to the opening damage, but PSG’s third also showed their attacking coordination: Achraf Hakimi advanced down the right and supplied Ruiz to finish. Gonçalo Ramos added the late fourth. There was no second leg in which Madrid could recover, only a 4–0 defeat and a place in the final for Paris.
Madrid have won both Champions League knockout ties between the clubs. PSG won the two earlier European ties and the Club World Cup semifinal. Benzema’s hat trick can be the first image that comes to mind without becoming the only history worth remembering.
