Kylian Mbappé will probably have nightmares of the linesman raising his flag to signal offside. This Saturday evening, during the Clasico, his very first under the colors of Real Madrid, the Frenchman was completely wrong. He was expected, as since the start of the season, perhaps even more than usual since he was recruited by Casa Blanca for this type of match. But the miracle did not happen. Kylian Mbappé has done Kylian Mbappé, at least in recent months. The first doubts did not take long to arise in the former Parisian’s head about this match. After a minute of play, he went deep and completely missed his face-to-face with Inaki Pena. His shot, from point blank range, was not even on target. Fortunately for him, he was flagged in an offside position even if in slow motion it didn’t seem obvious at all.
The first offside in a long series since he was signaled in an illegal position no less than 8 times in total in this match. A first in more than 15 years for a player from the 5 major championships. A dramatic statistic which ultimately illustrates quite well his inability to get into the match. During the 90 minutes, the Barcelona defense played on him. And he has never managed to do the opposite. With the wide open spaces and high defense, he was supposed to take advantage, but he did quite the opposite. And the final result of this meeting, a 4-0 slap, will make him think for a long time as he also showed crazy clumsiness in front of goal.
Mbappé was never in it
Kylian Mbappé still had the opportunity to shine. He hoped to be the hero of the match when he deceived the Barcelona goalkeeper with a nice dive. But after celebrating, he quickly came back to reality: offside. The rest was the same for him. In total, he missed four face-to-face matches and we saw him logically annoyed by his new goal canceled for offside at the end of the match. He will be able to console himself by saying that he was the author of his team’s first shot on target in the 71st minute. That’s all. For the rest, it was an evening without for the Frenchman who was perhaps hoping to experience a memorable match like his idol Cristiano Ronaldo was able to do in his debut at Real.
For his first Clasico, Kylian Mbappé completely missed out. Some statistics also illustrate his ineffectiveness in this match quite well. In more than 90 minutes, the captain of the Blues only managed one small dribble and won only one small duel. Too little for a player of this caliber. “We knew they were using the high line and we almost didn’t take advantage of it. Mbappé had chances and was sometimes offside. But he had three or four occasions where he needed more success. Something happened with the assistant, not with Flick. He was not a gentleman.”explained Ancelotti at a press conference. So of course, he was not helped by the performance of his team with Vinicius Jr who was just as off base. This is evidenced by the notes from the FM editorial team of the Madrid team. This Saturday evening, Kylian Mbappé therefore missed the opportunity to silence the critics and put the supporters in his pocket. He will have to do much more because time is running out now…
