Kylian Mbappe has already had a phenomenal career by the age of 25, but he’ll want to banish his latest visit to Anfield to the outer depths of his memory bank.
Like Real Madrid in general, the Frenchman had a night to forget in their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool, with Conor Bradley flooring him with one crunching but fair challenge and Los Blancos’ number 9 later seeing a penalty saved by Caoimhin Kelleher.
Those weren’t the only moments in the match that he’ll be keen to erase from his mind – indeed, he could’ve been partly culpable for a Reds goal in the first few minutes on Wednesday night.
Mbappe easily mugged by Salah
In the opening few minutes, Mbappe performed a couple of stepovers and cut in from the left flank as he sought to create an early attack.
However, in doing so he slightly overran possession and unsuspectingly had the ball taken off him by Mo Salah, who smelled blood and duly disposessed the France superstar with ease, thus instigating a Liverpool counterattack which saw Raul Asencio produce a last-ditch clearance off his own goalline.
Mbappe had a night to forget at Anfield
While Mbappe got away with that lax moment in the opening exchanges, he wasn’t spared an absolute caning from some European media outlets.
French newspaper L’Equipe – who are notorious for their unforgiving player ratings – awarded him a dismal 2/10 (via Liverpool Echo), yet that was still higher than the humiliating 1/10 he received from AS writer Sergio Lopez, who wrote that the Real Madrid superstar ‘didn’t turn up’ at Anfield.
In addition, the 25-year-old lost the ball 15 times last night, more than any of his teammates (Sofascore) despite being billed as the club’s latest galactico signing when he arrived from Paris Saint-Germain during the summer.
We’re not going to peddle any notion that a player who’s netted a hat-trick in a World Cup final (and scored in another four years earlier) and has 340 senior club and international goals before his 26th birthday isn’t a special talent.
However, Mbappe’s careless loss of possession to Salah in the opening few minutes definitely set the time for a miserable night from his – and Real Madrid’s – point of view.
You can view the clip of Mbappe being dispossessed below, via @Mocompz on X:
— + @Mosalah11 👆 (@Mocompz) November 28, 2024