As Real Madrid ended the 12 months with a bang, metropolis competitors and defending champions Atletico Madrid suffered their fourth instantly defeat, a 2-1 opposite at Granada, to leave them fifth however a yawning 17 points adrift.
Benzema ultimately placed the fixture out of attain of Real's Basque hosts in a depend of minutes, Oihan Sancet pulling one back with his fast tenth minute respond which hit the woodwork before evading Thibaut Courtois.
Benzema's 14th and 15th desires of the season consolidated his function at the top of the league's goalscoring chart.
Earlier Atletico's shaky defence of their La Liga crown took some other huge hit with injured duo Antoine Griezmann and Stefan Savic absent.
Atletico could be extra than glad to swop trajectories with Granada for whom this turned into a third consecutive win in front of their home fanatics and their fifth game with out loss.
This became absolutely now not how Diego Simeone envisaged the night time earlier than his tenth yr anniversary in fee at Atletico.
What's extra his Portuguese striker Joao Felix had Granada at the backfoot inside the second minute whilst his low angled shot got the better of his fellow countryman Luis Maximiano.
Venezuelan ahead Darwin Machis levelled within the 17th minute.
Felix had a header arguably harshly disallowed as the first 1/2 drew to a close with Jorge Molina grabbing the winner after the hour mark for Granada.
