Luis Enrique has a smile. And for good reason, his team not only got the better of Lille (3-1), but the coach was also able to rest his standard team before the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League, against Real Sociedad, on Wednesday. The only potential downside: Kylian Mbappé spent the match on the bench. A “precautionary” measure, as the coach himself said in French at the microphone of Canal+, after his blow to the ankle against Brest following a nasty gesture from Lilian Brassier on Wednesday.
After the meeting, Enrique wanted to be reassuring. “We didn’t want to take any risks with Kylian, it didn’t make sense. If it had been a final, he would have been there. But he made an intelligent choice,” tempered the Spaniard. So no fear for the Parisian striker, who was able to calmly watch his team claim victory. This situation was still unusual. Luis Enrique then added, in a joke intended to dodge a question from journalists on the future of his striker, that he would be present on Wednesday evening against Real Sociedad.
This is the first time in six years that Kylian Mbappé has spent an entire match on the bench. Proof that neither the player nor the staff wanted to risk aligning him. With the Lille stage over, the Parisians now have their eyes fixed on the capital point of their season. The reception of the Basques on February 14, for the knockout phase of the C1.
