Offside at will, goals disallowed and defeat at home… Kylian Mbappé loses his first Clasico against Barça – Libération

2024-10-27 10:52:00

On Saturday 26 October, Real Madrid‘s French striker experienced a disastrous evening for his first shock against Barcelona since his arrival in Spain. The match ended with a 4-0 victory for the Catalan rivals at Real Madrid.

From dream to nightmare: on Saturday 26 October evening, Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé experienced an extremely frustrating first Clasico, which saw him go from potential hero to symbol of Real Madrid’s collective failure against their great rival, l ‘FC Barcelona (4-0).

It was supposed to be his first big evening, the one that would definitively kick off his adventure “the club of his dreams” and it would have made him enter the hearts of his supporters. Ultimately it was a night to forget for the French striker, caught offside as many as eight times by a daring Barcelona defence, placed very high up the pitch, then clumsy in front of goal when he had the chance to shine.

“Mbappé gritted his teeth, trapped in Flick’s web of offsides [l’entraîneur de Barcelone] and unrealistic about the good opportunities this shock has afforded him.”summarizes the AS newspaper, while the Merengue number 9 missed two face-to-face encounters with Catalan goalkeeper Inaki Pena in the second half.

This often happened just a few centimeters away, as in the thirtieth minute of the game, where, launched deep by Lucas Vazquez, he exploded the Santiago Bernabeu with a subtle dive to open the scoring… before seeing his goal disallowed for offside . Already the sixth of the match. He conceded two more in the second half as Real tried to regain the lead, once again found wanting by the young Pau Cubarsi, 17, and the experienced Inigo Martinez, always well aligned.

“We knew they were playing with this very high block, so we wanted to try to take advantage of that. He had scoring opportunities, it’s true that he was caught offside several times, but that’s normal with such a high defense. Then he could have scored more times but he lacked a bit of efficiency.judged Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti after the match.

“Alarming”, “ridiculous”, “not at the level expected of him”… Mbappé has been widely criticized by the Spanish press, which however believes that the France captain seems to be returning to the top level despite his non-sporting affairs (rape accusations in Sweden made by the press, financial dispute with PSG… ) and his problems physicists.

“A match like last night seemed ideal to him to take a step forward, but we’ll have to wait. Against Barça he was able to run and, with a bit of success, could have at least scored a goal, but beyond that he is not as decisive and formidable as in previous years.underlines Sign in its pages Sunday.

“Historical ridiculousness”

For Catalan daily life Sportpro-Barça, Kylian Mbappé “He came to Madrid, presumably, to win titles and be decisive for the team. But since his arrival, the white team has not been strong and the Frenchman was historically ridiculous for his first Clasico at the Bernabeu.

Also identified, Carlo Ancelotti remains, as usual, confident and calm, remembering him “The last time Real lost a Clasico 0-4 we won La Liga and the Champions League”. I’m not sure that the formidable Barcelona team will give him so much freedom this year.