A goal late in the first half and another late in the second half gave Real Madrid a win that they really had to scrap it out for. Benzema scored - as he always does. Ronaldo did too - as he always does. Club America fought hard, but lacked the cutting edge that is required against sides of the calibre of the European champs.
They will now face J-League champions Kashima Antlers in the final for what would be their second FIFA Club World Cup.
It was a scrappy match, but it did throw up some fascinating stats thanks mainly to the man of the moment – a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. Here are 10 of the best stats that the number crunchers threw up today:
500 – Cristiano Ronaldo has scored his 500th career club goal. FIVE HUNDRED. The numbers this man puts up. WOOF! That’s 5 for Sporting Club de Portugal, 118 for Portugal and a fairly ridiculous 377 for Real Madrid
6 – Ronaldo has scored in every competition he has played in for Madrid. Of course, he has.
18 – Cristiano Ronaldo has a goals and assists combined tally of 18, the highest in the Madrid squad
36 – Real Madrid just matched AC Milan as the club with the 5th longest undefeated streak in top 5 leagues' history [all competitions].
100 – Madrid have smacked in a century of goals in this unbeaten run of theirs. They have had 27 wins and 9 draws (d’oh) in the period and have lifted two trophies. They’ve also not lost a game since April
23 – Real Madrid continue to remain unbeaten in any game that Lucas Vazquez has started. That's one stat that Vazquez will value above all else - undroppable isn't he, now!
7 – Real Madrid have not lost any of their FIFA Club World Cup games (4W 2D), scoring at least once in every single game
8 - Toni Kroos has delivered more assists than any other La Liga midfielder this season (all competitions). That German is something else
4 - James Rodríguez is the only La Liga player to have assisted in four different competitions this season! He hasn’ t even played that much!
1 - Karim Benzema is the first Real Madrid player to score in two different Club World Cups. What an underrated forward that man is.
