Benzema has been smashed about his poor performance

The forward performed poorly as France were knocked out of the World Cup with a 1-0 defeat to Germany in the quarter-final at the Maracana on Friday.When Karim Benzema smashed two goals against Honduras in France’s World Cup opener, it looked like he had answered the many critics who questioned before the tournament whether he should even start for the national team.

He followed it up with a goal against Switzerland and it felt as though the striker was finally reproducing on the big stage the club form that saw him score 24 goals in all competitions for Real Madrid in 2013-14.

But as les Blues were knocked out of the World Cup by Germany at the quarter-final stage here, Benzema went into hiding.It's one thing doing it against relative minnows, but quite another to lead an attack against world-class opposition. Benzema could not as Mat Hummels' first-half header booked Germany their fourth World Cup semi-final place in a row.

His performance also summed up why Real Madrid are pushing ahead with a deal to sign Radamel Falcao.As Barcelona close in on a top quality striker with an €88 million deal for Luis Suarez, their great rivals need to respond in kind.(soccerheatbase)