Among the many reasons for Sunday's El Clasico to be a highly anticipated one was the fact that this would be Real Madrid's latest Galactico Kylian Mbappe's first match against Barcelona. Moreover, the game was held at Madrid's newly revamped home ground, the Santiago Bernabeu. However, the match ended up being one that Mbappe would want to put out of his mind quickly.
Not only did Barcelona thrash Real Madrid 4-0, the Frenchman himself had a forgettable outing. Mbappe failed to score and was caught offside a whopping eight times, which, according to Opta, is the most by any player in a match in Europe's top five leagues. Incidentally, the previous record was also held by a former Real Madrid and France player - Karim Benzema who had been caught offside in a match against Eibar in November 2018.
Madrid dominated possession at the start but wasted a number of chances. Mbappe, who has been struggling to match his lofty standards since joining the Spanish giants, missed four clear opening from close-range. He had scored twice but both goals were ruled out for offside.
Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said that Mbappe needed to be more accurate in the final third.“We knew that they played with a high line, and we just couldn’t take advantage of it,” Ancelotti said. “Sometimes (Mbappe) fell offside, but he had three or four chances to score and needed a better finishing touch.”
{{/usCountry}}Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said that Mbappe needed to be more accurate in the final third.“We knew that they played with a high line, and we just couldn’t take advantage of it,” Ancelotti said. “Sometimes (Mbappe) fell offside, but he had three or four chances to score and needed a better finishing touch.”
{{/usCountry}}With Barcelona's regular goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen out long term with a knee injury, there were questions over second-choice goalkeeper Inaki Pena can keep out Mbappe. The 25-year-old ended up performing the task with aplomb and made two stops to deny the Frenchman in addition to keeping the rest of Madrid's superstar attackers out.
“When they scored those back-to-back goals it took the energy out of us. This is a complicated moment for us. It hurts to lose a game and especially after going 42 games unbeaten, but we shouldn’t just throw everything away because this team will play better," said Ancelotti.