When the first 45 minutes ended, the eyes of Anfield followed Kylian Mbappé, scrutinizing him with real curiosity, in case before entering the tunnel he took off a mask and Christophe Dugarry appeared underneath. Mbappé's last month in elite football makes no sense: none; It makes so little sense that, when it was his turn to take the penalty in the second half (after his best play in the game, destroying Liverpool's dam on the left), there was no joy in the Real Madrid fans but fear. Justified, because it wasn't even a stoppage. Passes to the rival, shots at the opponent's body, stopping pressing when there is still room to press, messing up the controls in the race, inexplicable offsides. That a huge, prodigious, absolutely outstanding player, the natural heir to the hole left by Messi and Ronaldo, has played the last few games is inexplicable.
In his first intervention at Anfield, he ran horizontally in the opposite field with a rival behind him and lost it in such a naive way (“it is believed that he is in the Palace of Versailles and Madrid is a permanent shipwreck,” said columnist Ángel del Riego) that Liverpool almost scored the first (Asencio took it off the goal line). Mbappé played between the left wing and the center, demanding unmarkings that his teammates could not see or ruled out for being offside, and he pressed as usual, crouching a little as if he were going to stampede against the opponent and opening the eyes, attentive, concentrated, but without moving. At 100% of both, Mbappé is one step above Vinicius, but today Vinicius is essential in Madrid, decisive in the biggest games and far away from his teammate up front. He had his moment in the first half with an extraordinary pass that Brahim filtered to him: he went on the run, like the herd of bison that was Ronaldo Nazario, and it turns out that Connor Bradley got there to make the tackle of his life when the French striker was poisoned in front of the goal.
Rivals appear in their best version when things seem to be going well; himself, when not: in stoppage time of the first he had a one-on-one at the top of the area, his always favorite position, and after a while he was involved between six legs and leaving the ball behind. He started the second half with a spectacular shot, but towards his own field. He frustrated a counterattack with an open field by giving the ball to Liverpool in an absurd pass. In the following play, the goalkeeper could have left the area forcing a clearance if he had continued to apply pressure, but he abandoned it, like other occasions, too soon. He missed the penalty, which is the least important thing, and already in the 90s he managed to do his thing, do it very well, clear the Liverpool defense from the left of the area and find a shooting line, which he executed with power. It didn't even reach the goal: a miraculous boot from a defender sent it to a corner. There is a mix of so many factors, including luck, that are wrong with Mbappé that things no longer allow for a middle ground: either he excels in a stellar way throughout this season or he will sink into an irrelevance that will be a bigger problem for Madrid. .
The team, fried by injuries (Camavinga has fallen, the best at Anfield along with Bellingham and Asencio; the two below the extraterrestrial Courtois), now faces an unprecedented situation in the Champions League. Almost as unprecedented as the fact that the great star expected for years, dominator of world football, came to solve the few problems that there were in the team and threatened to become an even bigger one.
