Barcelona’s convincing 4-0 win over Real Madrid at the Bernabéu highlighted a number of players from the home side, but none were more impressive than Kylian Mbappé. The Frenchman, who arrived in Madrid this summer with a reputation as the best player in the world, struggled in his first El Clásico. Hansi Flick’s high defensive line, as everyone had predicted, worked wonders in crippling Madrid’s forwards, with Mbappé flagged offside eight times out of twelve. It was a trap brilliantly executed by the Catalans at Chamartín, leaving the whites in a constant state of frustration.

Carlo Ancelotti, who was also heavily criticised after the overall, defended Mbappé’s mistakes, pointing to his frequent offside violations and missed chances in legitimate positions.

“I have no regrets because in the first half we followed up our good performance against Dortmund, pressing high and making it difficult for them to build up. We had chances; Mbappé was just offside by a hair’s breadth, and Vinícius also had a chance. The idea was to press more, and we did that for 60 minutes. It was a difficult moment after being unbeaten for 42 games. It would not be a big deal to throw everything away against a team that had the potential to do better, and I believe we did,” said Ancelotti.

“We took a, knowing that they were playing a high defensive line, and we could have taken advantage of that. Mbappé had moments to score; it is normal that he was offside, but he had three or four clear chances and needed to be more precise,” added the Italian coach.

“From a defeat, you can learn a lot; a little self-criticism is necessary. We need to analyse, but we cannot throw away all our efforts because the first half was very good, and I am not mistaken, having spent 48 years in football. This is a defeat, a difficult moment against the team that is leading LaLiga. This is El Clásico, and that makes it all the more painful. This defeat is different from the defeat against Lille, where we were not competitive and played poorly. Today, the result hurts because we risked everything in the last 30 minutes, but this is a different defeat,” Ancelotti commented from Reggiolo.

Kylian Mbappé disappointed many in his first Clásico, and his performances fell short of Madrid fans’ expectations. In four games, he scored eight goals but only showed glimpses of his immense quality, notably a stunning strike from outside the box against Celta Vigo. This was unconvincing for a player many consider to be the best player in the world.

Against Barcelona, ​​he faced Iñaki Peña in three one-on-one situations, only succeeding once. He was denied again when a first-half goal was ruled out for a narrow offside, and even when he did manage to get past the Barcelona goalkeeper in the second half, he was caught offside again.

In the three situations where he was not offside, Mbappé had two shots blocked, and another shot went wide of the left goal.

The French media has not hesitated to criticize Kylian Mbappé. L’Équipe, the leading sports newspaper in France and Europe, has highlighted the many times the Parisian striker has been caught offside.