Real Madrid poster boy Kylian Mbappe endured an El Clasico debut from hell with the World Cup winner failing to pull up trees in such an all-crucial encounter. Instead, the talismanic Robert Lewandowski put on a goalscoring clinic instead in a resounding 4-0 win for Barcelona.
All eyes have been on the Monaco graduate ever since he made the inevitable from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid over the summer in a deal that cost Los Blancos nothing on a free transfer.
In fairness, the Paris-born megastar has been subject to a stop-start beginning to his career in the Spanish capital, with him plundering eight goals and a further duo of assists in 13 outings across all competitions, but fans have now reacted to what could be his worst performances in Madrid colours thus far.
Inside Mbappe’s El Clasico Struggles
Frenchman struggled to finish a glut of chances
Of course, his numbers since the summer switch are not to wince at – but from Mbappe’s perspective, he would have been hoping to reach much more fruitful figures during his start to life at his La Liga employers. But against Barcelona, a team who cleverly beat Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday night, he ran out of options.
Despite their Hansi Flick-instructed high line, Blaugrana were able to contain the glittering Frenchman – inarguably one of the best footballers in world football – reducing him to sour grapes – most notably, a total of eight offsides – for the majority of the well-documented contest.
Just after the 10-minute mark, the centre forward had the chance to put his side in front with Inaki Pena in no man’s land. The Ukrainian was miles off his line and Mbappe had the entire net to aim at but, unfortunately for the home contingent, he was unable to make the most of his gilt-edged opportunity. 90min even suggested that Mbappe ‘dropped a stinker’ on his first display against Barcelona in the white of Los Blancos and gave him a 2/10 for his troubles, noting:
“The France captain dropped a stinker on his Clasico debut, failing to stay onside and not truly working Pena with any of his shots.”
Mbappe, 25, did manage to find the back of the net in the first half but was, of course, flagged for offside once more. In the wake of his El Clasico struggles, fans have reacted on X (formerly Twitter) with one saying: “Mbappe has just dropped the worst performance I’ve ever seen in my life.” Another insisted that “Mbappe is having a nightmare in the El Clasico.”
“Don’t know if Mbappé is extremely stupid or if Barça’s offside trap is insanely good.” a third supporter wrote, “Mbappe this is beyond disgraceful man, the fail comps are gonna go triple platinum.” Another was blown away by the number of times he was caught in an offside position as they said the following:
“Genuinely cannot recall the last time I’ve seen a player be offside as much during a game as Mbappé has tonight. Half of them haven’t even been close. Barça shutting him down without even touching him.”