Kylian Mbappé scores for his first match with Real Madrid in the Champions League

Not yet at his best, the French international is on the right track after his difficult summer and his recent arrival in Spain. He put Real Madrid on the path to success against Stuttgart.

New season, new format. The Champions League was back on Tuesday, September 17. The great curiosity of this first evening was Kylian Mbappé’s first match in the colors of Real Madrid in the competition, against Stuttgart. Without delivering the best performance of his career, the captain of the French team showed himself to be there by scoring the first goal for his team, which was battered but ultimately victorious against a German team that had no complexes (3-1).

He had the merit of scoring a real finishing goal, while doubts persist about his ability to shine in a leading striker role. Twenty-four seconds after half-time, he only had to push the ball into the back of the net, sliding, to conclude the great work of Rodrygo on his right side (46th). After the disappointment of his summer and his missed Euro, Kylian Mbappé already has five goals in seven games with the Merengues. If he is still far from his best level, the ex-Parisian reassured on the physical level.

He showed himself capable of creating situations with the ball at his feet, using his dribbling and a bit of his explosiveness on the left side to then try to open up an angle to shoot with his right foot. On the other hand, the automatisms with his attacking partners are still far from obvious and he only shot once after his goal (seven shots in total). More broadly, the traffic jam of stars (Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham) in Real Madrid’s attacking sector is already showing some limits. The team block of the unsinkable defending champion often gave the impression of being cut in two in the defensive phase.

This meant that he had to suffer the equaliser, scored by Deniz Undav (68th), and had to fight hard to leave with the three points. And the light did not come from Kylian Mbappé. Defender Antonio Rüdiger gave his team the lead again from a corner (83rd). Then the young Endrick (18 years old) took the light and killed the suspense in added time by ignoring the calls from Mbappé and Vinicius to score from outside the area the goal for 3-1.

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To see a French international shine on Tuesday night, you had to look more towards Munich, where the new Bavarian Michael Olise scored twice against Dinamo Zagreb in his team’s victory (9-2, record for goals scored in a Champions League match). Ibrahima Konaté, who scored with Liverpool against AC Milan (3-1), was also smiling, unlike Mike Maignan. The unshakeable goalkeeper of the Blues went off injured, visibly injured in the knee, hiding his face in his jersey.