At the Parc des Princes,
It had to be a match for him. There was everything, in this semi-final return, to see a great Kylian Mbappé: the feeling of revenge compared to the first leg, which he had crossed like a shadow, his repositioning on the left, where he would find a little spaces and oxygen, and above all the responsibility to show the way in a meeting for the history of a club of which he is the standard. But it was all an illusion. Mute, harmless, he got through it again and said goodbye to his dream of winning a Champions League with PSG.
Hands on his knees at the final whistle, staring into space, he accompanied his teammates to greet the Auteuil stand, but he was not really there and was one of the first to disappear. For this last European match at the Parc under the Parisian colors before going free this summer, he had surely thought of another end of the evening. If this is the case, he never translated his thoughts into action, and it is a very personal failure that he will have to accept, he who wanted the keys.
“I am the first to be targeted”
We can recognize him for having already started, by coming to speak in the mixed zone after the meeting. We didn’t really believe it anymore and we were almost going to give up – force of habit – when he appeared, immediately attacked by the horde. After a few agreed answers on the “sadness” of this elimination, it was a question of his individual performance. No pretense:
“I tried to help my team as best I could. It wasn’t enough. When we talk about efficiency in the area, I am the first to be targeted. I’m the guy who has to score the goals, I have to be decisive. When that happens, I’m here taking all the light, and when that doesn’t work I have to take all the shadow too. There’s no problem with that, the first one to score tonight was me. Now that’s life, you have to get over it, keep working, whether it’s me or the team. »
Only 3 goals at the Parc in knockout matches
We would have liked to push the analysis a little further, to understand why he had been so absent, to know what he had thought of the tactics adopted, of the midfielders idling behind him for too long, and more generally of his management by Luis Enrique since the announcement of his departure and this has weighed on this end of the season which is not like him. No time, obviously.
We will stay with these figures: 18 lost balls in the match, the highest total behind Dembélé, and a general record with PSG of 48 goals scored in 73 Champions League matches, but only three at the Park in the knockout matches. The story will remain unfinished.