It was thought that Kylian Mbappe would surpass the shadow of Messi and Neymar and suddenly become PSG’s biggest star in the 2023 – 2024 season, culminating in the Champions League, but the championship dream is still unfinished.
This is the first season PSG entered a new phase, after deciding to end the ambitious project called “galaxy” that lasted more than 10 years without winning the Champions League . Messi and Neymar are the biggest names for this project that costs a lot of money, and they both sadly leave in the summer of 2023. Only Mbappe remains , in his final season to prove the value of a big star. at the Paris football team.
Mbappe was helpless in the siege of Borussia Dortmund players
AFP
Without Messi and Neymar by his side, Mbappe has proven his ability with the number of goals scored for PSG (43 goals and 10 assists in 46 matches so far in the 2023 – 2024 season). Compared to two contemporaneous stars, Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) and Erling Haaland (Man.City), this 25-year-old French striker has all the elements to step into the superstar ranks as a worthy successor to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Famous players have left European football.
In the French team, Mbappe is also considered the king when he was crowned champion in the 2018 World Cup and runner-up in 2022, owns a record of scoring a total of 12 goals in the World Cup , and won the top scorer award ( scored 8 goals in World Cup 2022). As long as he wins the Champions League, Mbappe will almost certainly win the Golden Ball title in 2024. The title will confirm the French striker’s status as a superstar .
Mbappe brought PSG to the semi-finals of the Champions League, while in the previous two seasons with Messi, this achievement only stopped at the round of 16. However, when at the key moment of the championship dream, Mbappe… disappeared. The number of 8 goals scored in the Champions League this season to rank top scorer with Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) also becomes meaningless.
In the two rounds of the Champions League semi-finals, they only met Borussia Dortmund, which was rated as an underdog, a team that PSG won 2-0 and drew 1-1 in the group stage, which was not unfamiliar, but Mbappe suddenly played extremely poorly and Very ungrateful with scoring opportunities. He only had 51 touches of the ball, made 22 passes, achieved a pass accuracy rate of only 79% and lost the ball 18 times. These are very poor indicators compared to a top striker who is expected to become a superstar. As a result, PSG had to receive both losses with a score of 0-1 against Borussia Dortmund. The German team took advantage of set opportunities to score 2 goals by Niclas Fullkrug (first leg) and Mats Hummels (second leg) to win the final score 2-0, winning a ticket to the Champions League final for the first time. after 11 years.
“In the Champions League, in decisive matches, you have to play effectively both at home and away. In this respect, Borussia Dortmund did better than us. When I score, I get all the glory. And when I score, I get all the glory. That didn’t happen, I had to accept the darkness and criticism,” Mbappe admitted.
Mbappe will end the final season of his career at PSG (7th season) after this season, and once again he will miss the Champions League championship. If only Mbappe comes to Real Madrid next season, then this could happen.
