Karim Benzema "surprised" by Angel di Maria flop at Manchester United

Karim Benzema has admitted his surprise that Angel di Maria failed at Manchester United, but backed his former Real Madrid teammate to succeed at Paris Saint-Germain.

The Argentine winger, 27, sealed a £44m move to Les Parisiens in August, some 12 months after the Red Devils spent a British record £59.7m to take him from Spain.

Despite their hefty expenditure of recent summers, the big-spending French champions have failed to get past the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Nevertheless, Benzema expects Di Maria - who won the competition with Real in 2014 - to be the type of game-changer that PSG need on the European stage.

"Di Maria is a great guy! I have a great understanding with him, not just in a football sense but as a person too," he told Le Parisien. "He has it all - speed, percussion and technique.

"At Real Madrid, he did everything - he played in the middle, on the wing and even at left-back. He is cool and funny. A great teammate. After the great season he had made ​​in 2014, when we won the Champions League and he reached the World Cup final, I was very surprised it didn't work out at United.

"In a team, there is not one player who can do everything by himself, but Di Maria can help a lot in the Champions League because he has the experience of big games and knows all about playing at a high level."

Di Maria made his debut in the 3-0 win at AS Monaco two weeks ago.