Kylian Mbappé missed his subject. Highly anticipated for the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Barcelona, ultimately lost by the Parisians (2-3), the striker was very discreet, even invisible this Wednesday evening at the Parc des Princes.
“I found him extinct and unhappy,” Habib Beye even said on Canal +. Perfectly muzzled by the Catalan defense, made up of Jules Koundé, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi and João Cancelo, the Bondynois produced a sheet of unusual statistics for his leader. Here are some figures.
3
On the pitch for 90 minutes, Kylian Mbappé only attempted three strikes during this match. Two of them were blocked, while the last, at the very end of the match, was not on target. Conversely, Ousmane Dembélé stood out, notably scoring his second goal of the season after a hook and a magnificent left-footed strike which mystified Marc-André Ter Stegen.
3
The number is still 3, and it is not more glorious. Constantly out of time, Kylian Mbappé was flagged offside three times. He was never found behind the Barcelona defense. His poor positioning cost the Parisians several interesting offensives.
10
The Bondynois was involved in ten duels on the ground this Wednesday evening. And he only won two. If we can congratulate Jules Koundé, who managed to counter his compatriot during the entire match, we can also be disappointed with the performance of the captain of the France team, who has accustomed us to much more interesting standards . In the air, he was only slightly more efficient, with one duel out of two won.
13
This is perhaps the worst statistic regarding Kylian Mbappé’s match. In total, the Frenchman lost 13 balls during this match, when his team lost 117 in total. A total that is difficult to understand, even if Ousmane Dembélé, for his part, lost 21. But the former Barcelona player also provoked a lot to create differences, which his counterpart on the other flank did not do.
44
It must be admitted, Kylian Mbappé was not given many balls by his teammates. Particularly watched by Xavi’s men, who had nevertheless promised that he was not going to prepare an “anti-Mbappé plan”, the Frenchman only touched 44 balls, much less than Ousmane Dembélé and his 65 touches of the ball . Even Bradley Barcola, who entered the game at half-time, is not far from Bondynois’ total with his 34 balls.
