Kylian Mbappé is playing football again and, for him, that is certainly the main thing at the moment. At the end of two weeks of an absolutely terrible media storm, between his controversial absence from Didier Deschamps’ French team, his escapade in Sweden in the middle of the international window and his supposed presence in a rape complaint, the 25-year-old scored in the 20th minute of Real Madrid’s match in Vigo on Saturday evening.
And the captain of the France team scored a magnificent goal. On a ball blocked by Eduardo Camavinga full axis, Mbappé sent a violent strike from 25 meters to beat the Celta goalkeeper, Vicente Guaita. A sixth goal in nine La Liga days, an eighth achievement in all competitions.
Mbappé at the forefront, Bellingham in support
Note that Carlo Ancelotti innovated during this trip to Galicia by testing a 3-4-2-1, after the 4-4-2 used against Villarreal before the international window. Jude Bellingham was left midfielder/number 10 depending on the phases of play, this time he played right half-space in the new system of the day, with Mbappé up front and Vinicius on the left.
Mbappé’s superb opening score also masks the poor first period of the Spanish and European champions. The Merengues did little to shine in the game and were especially disastrous on the Celta counter-attacks, who could easily have opened the scoring in front of their Balaidos crowd. Swedish striker Williot Swedberg missed two huge chances in front of Thibaut Courtois.
