Several home team players were emphasized in Barcelona’s resounding 4-0 victory over Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, but none more so than Kylian Mbappé. The Frenchman, who was regarded as the world’s best player when he came to Madrid this summer, had a rough debut in El Clásico. As everyone had anticipated, Hansi Flick’s high defensive line did a fantastic job of hobbling Madrid’s forwards, with Mbappé being called offside eight times in twelve games. At Chamartín, the Catalans skillfully set the trap, which left the whites perpetually frustrated.
After the whole catastrophe, Carlo Ancelotti, who also received a lot of criticism, defended Mbappé’s errors by highlighting his repeated offside infractions and missed opportunities in positional areas.
“I have no regrets because we built on our strong performance against Dortmund in the first half by pressing high and making it hard for them to build up.” We had opportunities; Vinícius had a chance, and Mbappé was a hair’s breadth offside. Our goal was to press harder, and we spent an hour doing just that. It was a challenging time following 42 games without a loss. Throwing everything away against a squad that could have performed better—and I think we did—would not be a huge concern, Ancelotti added.
Knowing that they were playing a high defensive line, we took a chance that we could have exploited. The Italian coach said, “Mbappé had opportunities to score; it’s normal that he was offside, but he had three or four clear chances and needed to be more precise.”
“You can get a lot of knowledge from a loss; some self-evaluation is required. We must analyze, but we cannot abandon our efforts because, based on my 48 years of football experience, I believe the first half was excellent. This is a loss and a challenging time for the La Liga-leading team. It’s even more difficult because this is El Clásico. This loss differs from the one we suffered against Lille, where we performed poorly and lacked competition. We risked everything in the final 30 minutes, so the outcome hurts today, but this is a different loss,” Reggiolo said in response to Ancelotti.
In his debut Clásico, Kylian Mbappé let many down, as his performances did not live up to the expectations of Madrid supporters. He scored eight goals in four games, although he only displayed flashes of his extraordinary talent, most notably an incredible strike against Celta Vigo from outside the box. For a player that many believe to be the best in the world, this was not convincing.
He faced Iñaki Peña three times one-on-one against Barcelona, although he only won once. Even though he managed to sneak past the Barcelona goalkeeper in the second half, he was again caught offside after a first-half goal was disallowed for a narrow offside.
Mbappé had two efforts blocked and another missed the left goal in the three instances in which he was not offside.
Kylian Mbappé has been criticized by the French media without hesitation. The Parisian striker’s numerous offside calls have been brought to light by L’Équipe, the top sports publication in France and Europe.