Kylian Mbappe was dazzled by the bright lights of Anfield on Wednesday evening.
It wasn’t all too long ago he was considered as one of the best players on the planet – he’s a shadow of that man now. Mbappe’s evening on the banks of the River Mersey can be summed up in two moments – the first courtesy of Conor Bradley; the second was all him.
In the first-half, Mbappe raced through the Liverpool backline – looking like was one-on-one with Reds shot-stopper Caoimhin Kelleher, only to be crunched by Bradley. The youngster had sprinted across the backline, delivering one of the best sliding tackles Anfield has ever seen.
Liverpool took the lead through Alexis Mac Allister in the second-half, and it had been coming. Real had been chasing shadows, but started to grow into the game.
And they were handed the golden opportunity to get back into the game from the spot. Mbappe stepped up, and placed his penalty the perfect height for Kelleher to bat away.
“Well that just about sums up his evening,” said TNT Sports’ Darren Fletcher, who was on commentary for the game. And some fans couldn’t help but agree on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Mbappe is the worst thing to happen to Real Madrid in recent years, and you know Florentino Perez will eventually prioritise him over Vinicius Jr for his global appeal,” one fan fumed. While a second said: “Mbappe, what happened to you man?”
“Kylian Mbappe has had a TORRID time against Liverpool this evening,” a third posted. And another added: “Mbappe doesn’t really like playing at Anfield!”
Cody Gakpo grabbed the Reds second of the evening as they sunk to 24th in the Champions League table, almost out of the playoff spots.
Liverpool meanwhile, much like in the Premier League, are now sitting pretty at the top of the table.