Kylian Mbappé was reframed. At the beginning of June, during a press conference, the Real Madrid player said that the Euro was harder than the World Cup. He declared: “For me, the Euro is a very complicated competition, more so than the World Cup. There is so much pressure at the World Cup, the stakes take over a lot… All the teams know each other at the Euro, we are used to playing each other all the time, so tactically it’s a football that looks alike. It’s difficult from the group stages.”
But these comments did not necessarily go down well. Lionel Messi reacted strongly to this statement from the French striker: “He does not take into account Argentina, three-time world champion, nor Brazil, five-time world champion, nor Uruguay, double world champion. There are a lot of world champions who are not part of it. The best teams participate in the World Cup. It’s not for nothing that everyone wants to be world champion.”
For his part, Luka Modric, was of the same opinion as Messi: “It’s true that at the Euro there are matches between the best teams in Europe, but at the World Cup, there are also Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile, great teams. I don’t like to compare, but I think the World Cup is more difficult because there are teams from all over the world. I understand what Mbappé meant, but for me the World Cup is more difficult. But everyone has their own opinion.”
Saturday evening, Raphinha, Brazilian international, responded curtly at a press conference: “Mbappé said that the Euro was harder than the World Cup? Unfortunately for him and fortunately for us, he lost a World Cup to a South American team. I would like to see the European nations compete in the qualifiers on the grounds we play on.”
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