Kylian Mbappé and Real Madrid experienced another evening full of emotions on Wednesday, during their trip to AS Roma. And while the Madrilenians finally won with a score of 4 goals to 3, the French striker reached a new monumental milestone in his career.
By scoring his 72nd goal in the queen of European competitions, the native of Bondy overtook Madrid legend Raul (71 goals) to take, alone, fifth place in the ranking of the best scorers in the history of the C1. The Bondynois struck in the 25th minute of play with a long shot deflected by a Roman defender while the Italian club had opened the scoring five minutes earlier.
The next target: Karim Benzema and his 90 goals, a goal well within the French prodigy’s reach in the medium term. The podium is much further away. Robert Lewandowski (109 goals), Lionel Messi (129 goals) and Cristiano Ronaldo (140 goals) will be more difficult to reach, but Mbappé’s age and trajectory offer hope.
Mbappé overtakes Messi
The event took on even greater symbolism since it was the 100th Champions League match played by the player in his career. By reaching this mythical bar at the precise age of 27 years and 298 days, Kylian Mbappé offers himself an authentic record of precocity. He thus dethrones the Argentinian Lionel Messi, who until then held this reference: with FC Barcelona, Pulga became a centenarian in C1 at the age of 28 years and 84 days.
The evening could have been bittersweet if Real Madrid had given in to Roman desires. Manhandled for a large part of the match, the Merengue found themselves trailing by a heavy score of 3 goals to 1 at the start of the last ten minutes of the game. However, the legendary character of the Madrid club was once again manifested in the most spectacular way. In a completely crazy finale, the White House turned the tide thanks to three goals scored from corners, snatching a victory as unexpected as it was essential (4-3). Mbappé and his teammates were thus able to fully savor this success acquired through forceps, crowning a prosperous evening both on a collective and personal level.
