Real Madrid showed their strength when entering the 1/8 round of the Champions League, with the spectacular evolution of Kylian Mbappe in recent times.
The main character Mbappe
Near midnight on Wednesday (around 5am on February 20, Hanoi time), Kylian Mbappe appeared and the “wow” echoed throughout the press conference area of the Bernabeu stadium, which was packed with reporters. It was a strange moment.
A collective reflex that had never happened before. Mbappe walked down with the ball from his hat-trick against Man City.
Mbappe did not have time to pay attention to the offer of the ball from his teammates. “I did not notice, because I had to come here to talk,” he laughed.
Kylian talked a lot. Then, he summarized his feelings on Instagram: “Are these Champions League nights at the Bernabeu?”.
The performance in the second leg of the Champions League play-offs also marked the end of a half-year of painstaking adjustments that Carlo Ancelotti has been making. Finally, everything clicked.
The first two goals were perfect examples of Real Madrid’s harmony, with Mbappe shining as the ball’s final resting place.
The opener was a 17-pass sequence that began with Tchouameni stealing the ball in Courtois’s box. According to Opta, Man City had not conceded a goal after so many passes since 2017, when Shakhtar scored after 24 passes.
The move contained all the fluidity that Real Madrid have achieved: they built the situation with 16 passes, then Raul Asencio found Mbappe with a long pass into the space they had created in the middle.
Pep Guardiola was most resigned: “Even with opponents next to them, they have the ability to keep the ball and maintain the play, which Real Madrid had a little trouble with before. Now they can crush you and create scoring situations through passes.”
The second goal was similar. The situation started in the home penalty area, with the ball coming from Courtois. Nine passes later, the ball reached Mbappe in the opposite penalty area.
Real Madrid have a collective understanding and the French star has improved with his strength, in positions closer and closer to goal. Kylian has gradually moved away from the left wing, where he often appeared when he first arrived.
“If you are more central, you don’t need many touches to score. One run and one touch. Kylian’s best qualities are his runs and his speed,” Ancelotti explained, as he tried to drag Mbappe from the left wing into the middle.
Data from Hudl Statsbomb shows otherwise. Until the defeat to Bilbao at San Mames in December, the day he felt he had hit rock bottom, Mbappe received the ball 37.1% of the time in the final third.