After seven years of a tug-of-war that used to leave them badly hurt, Real Madrid fans managed to fulfill their dream this summer, seeing Kylian Mbappé wearing their team’s shirt. The 25-year-old player will play his first classic today, but on Tuesday he was already able to see what the Bernabéu unleashed is and, as Courtois said, this time he will be “on the good side of history and not on the bad.” ”, which he had already suffered when PSG was beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League with a comeback in just fifteen minutes in 2022, on the way to fourteen.
In any case, playing against Barcelona is not something new for Mbappé, who can display some good statistics against the Blaugrana. In four games he has scored no less than six goals against them. Madrid would like him to maintain this average. The player does not have bad white numbers, but for now he has not been that differential player, that undisputed number one that they thought they had signed after so many years of waiting. In fact, today at the club it is believed that Vinícius Junior is in better shape and is more destabilizing. It’s his Ballon d’Or.
Against Barcelona
Six goals in four games
In Madrid they assure that everything is going according to schedule, that “Mbappé is progressing adequately.” And they also give a French example. The Bernabéu whistled for Zidane for the first two or three months. “The adaptation of such a player is never very quick,” say locker room sources. And even more so in a footballer who came with very few vacations after a poor Euro Cup in which his nose was broken without finally having surgery.
Mbappé has also been involved in a fight in court with his former team, PSG, for months over his termination and just in case two weeks ago he was involved in a judicial investigation in Sweden to determine if he participated in a case. of rape when he was on vacation in Stockholm for two days. And in France, criticism against him intensifies for having been deleted from Deschamps’ last list for the Nations League.
Given all this, the motto in Madrid has been and is to protect Mbappé from everything and everyone. Nobody doubts that the player is very strong mentally. He knows how to wink. He won over the fans by speaking more than correct Spanish on the day of his presentation and on the field he is seen in perfect harmony with the other stars of the team, in particular with Vinícius and Bellingham, with whom he connects better than with the French clan : Tchouaméni, Mendy or Camavinga with whom he could have interacted more by having at least a greater language affinity. An example. Vinícius has celebrated several goals making the classic Mbappé gesture and vice versa.
The white path
He has scored eight goals in thirteen games
The Frenchman has played practically everything except a couple of games due to an injury to the femoral biceps in his left leg (among them he missed the derby). He has played 1,057 minutes spread over thirteen games in which he has scored eight goals and given two assists. He has shot on goal 40 times. And he is, together with Vinícius, the one designated to take the penalties. His hierarchy in the team is not exactly that of a newcomer but rather he is already among the heavyweights.
Ancelotti showered him with praise yesterday at the press conference: “The player knows perfectly what he has to do today because he has experience and has played against Barcelona many times. We are happy with his performance because he has scored goals. And he was very present in the first two goals against Dortmund. We are already satisfied with what he is doing but he will do it better because he has the qualities to do it. But we are in no hurry, neither he nor I nor the club.” Today Mbappé will have the spotlight on him again.
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