It is this Wednesday evening at Anfield that we will find Kylian Mbappé for a great Champions League poster between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The number 9 of the Merengues did not convince the Casa Blanca supporters on Sunday during the victory of Carlo Ancelotti’s team in Leganés (0-3), in the southern suburbs of the capital. The captain of the France team opened the scoring before half-time, on an offering from Vinicius, and was elected MVP of the match by La Liga (to everyone’s surprise).
But Mbappé was not brilliant, far from it. His Italian technician placed him to the left of “Vini” to regain confidence and, in addition to blocking the Brazilian winger in the axis, the Bondynois had difficulty making any difference with the ball at his feet when he found himself on the wing. A sequence in the second half is terrible: winger Dani Raba easily steals the ball, the ball comes back to him and Mbappé tries to challenge Adria Altimira, the opposing full-back, for an easy ball recovery from Renato Tapia on the two-hander…
Mbappé and Vinicus, day and night
If he has often played as a left striker at PSG and the French team, the 2018 world champion and top scorer of the 2022 World Cup is also not an overflow player along the touchline as can be the ‘incredible Vinicius. In this Real Madrid carried by Jude Bellingham and “Vini”, Mbappé clearly has no place on the left, so far from the opposing goal, and will certainly have to be content with a place at the forefront, drowned in the opposing defense.
After this seventh goal in 12 La Liga matches, Mbappé will try to score for the second time in Champions against the Reds. Vinicius, Bellingham but also Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga and even Arda Güler (against Leganés) bring more to the Madrid collective on the pitch. But the French phenomenon has plenty of talent and numerous opportunities to pile up the goals.
