Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema turned in a display for the ages against Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana semi-finals on Wednesday night.

Appropriately, after delivering his masterpiece Benzema was handed his own work of art - a Mark Rios portrait - to anoint him man-of-the-match.

The 34-year-old seems to keep getting better and better with time, and against his old rivals he showed why he is rightly considered as one of the best players in the world.

Benzema started his evening by contributing to the first goal - winning back the ball and feeding Vinicius Junior - before he hit the post, scored the second goal and set up a host of chances for his teammates.

🔥💪 KARIIIIIIIIM!!#Supercopa | #ElClásico pic.twitter.com/Kun22udZQi

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) January 12, 2022

Xavi congratulated Benzema

Such was his performance that even Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez sought him out to congratulate him at the final whistle.

Taking on more responsibility as a veteran in the Real Madrid squad these days, Benzema was everywhere, drifting out to the wing and dropping deep, as well as attacking the area.

It was enough to befuddle the Barcelona defence, and a sign of a player operating with an extremely high confidence level at this current moment.

Benzema's display notwithstanding, it wasn't a flawless night from a Real Madrid perspective and the starting XI is not as set in stone as it once was, particularly during Carlo Ancelotti's first, glorious spell at the club.

But they were tactically astute against the Blaugrana, sitting back early on and hitting their opponents on the counter-attack, which worked perfectly due to the contributions of Benzema and Vinicius.

Mistakes from Eder Militao let Barcelona back into the game, but Ancelotti - and Benzema - did enough to make it through to Sunday's final.