Mbappé's black night

It was definitely not Mbappé's day. France was stamped on Shevchenko's approach. Five defenders and constant attention to the PSG star that ended up frustrating Kylian. The 1-1 was not the result that was expected at the end of this first qualifying match for the World Cup in Qatar. At least not the one Deschamps ventured, who saw Ukraine scratch a tie on his visit to the Stade de France. Just as he witnessed the frustration of a Mbappé who ended up replacing in 77 ', with message in the subsequent press conference included.

“I will speak calmly with him. You know you did not play a good game. It was not in the best condition and it did not feel good. The rival adapted and there were always 3 or 4 players on him. Ukraine's approach complicated their influence on the game, “analyzed the coach. L'Équipe share plot line and in his usual post-match assessment he understands that Bondy's was the worst player in the match. “In the first 20 minutes he flirted with nothing, while the next 50 were not more exciting either. Apart from a volley that went off course, it did not exist and he looked too much for the foul to compensate”, reasons the French newspaper, which gives it a final grade '3'.

Mbappé spent most of the game glued to the left wing, as can be seen on the heat map, and had no real influence on his team's offensive play. He tried the shot four times, three of them missed the goal and the rest his shot was repelled by the defense Ukrainian. What's more, lost 15 balls and fell twice offside, according to statistics collected by SofaScore. While he could be seen lost in protests, as in a play in which he claimed a penalty for a blow that the referee did not understand as punishable.

Interestingly, that he was the only one of the four dribbles he attempted that failed to complete, but the rest were not final. All this was worth a '6.7' rating that collides with the '7.9' that Griezmann received, the best of the crash both for the statistical portal and for L'Équipe. Although the latter accused him of “stopping excessively”, as well as of “trying to speed up the game too much” afterwards, without success. However, la tremendous thread to the long stick that made it 1-0 compensated those black spots.

Two rematches in a week

As far as Mbappé is concerned, this course is alternating memorable performances, still rumbles its stratospheric hat-trick at the Camp Nou, with other more off, see some moments of the season in which it has not shone too much. However, eLlo does not come down from Olympus in which he has been installed for a long time. A place that he has deservedly earned and that makes Real Madrid dream of dressing him in white sooner rather than later. Now it is his turn to bury this black night against Kazakhstan (March 28) and Bosnia (31). Two matches with the aroma of personal revenge to return to the friendly face of the football covers.