There was no comeback and no room for miracles. Real Madrid failed to achieve their goal of qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals in a match against Arsenal in which a magical night was expected and instead turned into a nightmare. One of the men expected to carry the team on his shoulders and lead the comeback was Mbappé, who not only failed to do so but also ended up injured.
In recent weeks, Kylian Mbappé has seen his performances drop and seems to have ‘written himself out’ of the season after making a senseless tackle against Deportivo Alavés that got him sent off and starting the game against Arsenal with more heart than head, only to end up retiring with a sprain.
Against Arsenal, he started very strongly, driving the ball forward and getting into the game from the outset, but he faded as the minutes passed, perhaps after the penalty he gave away, which, after just six minutes, was quickly overturned by VAR. From that moment on, everything began to go wrong until his injury.
Kylian Mbappé had the opportunity to experience a magical night for the first time at the Santiago Bernabéu and wanted to be one of the stars of the show. The French kid who dreamed of playing for Real Madrid on big Champions League nights had the chance to fulfill one of his many dreams in white, and he was more motivated than ever to prove that he had come to the club to make history.
His signing, which had been eagerly awaited for years, promised great things for Real Madrid, but the truth is that the Frenchman could end the season with his worst statistics in recent years and is still failing to make a difference in the latter stages of the Champions League. He has not scored in a semi-final or final since 2017 with Monaco.
As the months have gone by, Mbappé’s Madrid has fallen out of tune. Right now, he has 32 goals and four assists with Real Madrid this season. Last season, without going any further, he finished with 45 goals and 11 assists with PSG, the previous season with 41+10 and 2020-21 with 42+11.
It is true that this season he is not playing in his natural position and playing as a number 9 alongside Vinicius is not working for him at all. In fact, you only have to look at the heat maps of the two players in matches to see how most of the time they overlap on the left.
As journalist Andrés Onrubia points out, Kylian Mbappé’s last goal in a Champions League semifinal/final was with Monaco in 2017. Since then, he has played in three semifinals and one final without scoring. These statistics reinforce the feeling that Mbappé’s stature grows with his national team in big games, but he does not quite measure up at the club level.