It was only Las Palmas opposite, modest 14th in La Liga, but Kylian Mbappé's performance was superb on Sunday at the Bernabéu, for a 4-1 victory for Real Madrid which allowed the Merengues to regain the lead in the standings with two points more than Atlético. It's striking: the French phenomenon is in great physical shape and gets along much more easily with his teammates. Mbappé takes advantage of numerous situations to pile up goals, he now has 18 goals in all competitions in 30 matches after his double at the weekend.
Scorer from the penalty spot for Real's equalizer against the Canaries (18th), then author of the 3-1 goal with a powerful flat foot on a serve from Rodrygo (36th), Mbappé also made the nets tremble before half-time (42nd), but the video referee then asked his center on the pitch to cancel the shot for an offside by the captain of the Blues at the start of the action. Mbappé then played the entire second period without scoring but was at the origin of Madrid's 4th goal from a shift for Fran Garcia, decisive passer (57th).
Second goal stolen from Mbappé!
However, Mbappé's goal refused for offside should not have been canceled. According to Real Madrid TV, the video referees did not take the correct image to judge Mbappé's position. The ball has already left the foot of Antonio Rüdiger, author of the opening towards Mbappé on the edge of offside. And the 3D modeling given by La Liga shows a Bondynois offside by a few centimeters from the top of the shoulder. Taking the fraction of the image from before, Mbappé is covered by a Las Palmas defender and, according to the Casa Blanca media, the goal should not have been invalidated.
Real can cry foul because this is the second time that Kylian Mbappé has been the victim of the haste of video referees when validating a goal. In Valencia on January 3, during a success snatched in the 95th minute thanks to Jude Bellingham, a nice goal from the Frenchman in the 60th was refused for an offside of a few millimeters. However, the VAR had taken a still image in which the ball had already left Bellingham's foot! Mbappé's stats could therefore have included two additional goals.
