the long night of Mbappé and Messi, powerless against the Bavarians

Thirty-two small balls touched for 90 minutes which must have seemed very long to him. Kylian Mbappé lived a sad evening, Wednesday March 8, on the lawn of the Allianz-Arena during the elimination of Paris Saint-Germain against Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the Champions League (0-2). Isolated, Mbappé was unable to overthrow the Bavarian club after the defeat of the first leg (0-1). Lionel Messi had more balls, but got it wrong.

Kylian Mbappé, lonely and well taken

During the first leg, his appearance in the second half for 30 minutes on the lawn of the Parc des Princes had almost completely revived the course of the meeting. “Kylian Mbappé can change any match. PSG with him is better than without. But we will have good ideas to counter him”, had advanced a mischievous Julian Nagelsmann after the meeting.

The Bayern Munich coach prepared his move very well. “If our plan works, Mbappé is not going to have fun”, launched Thomas Müller, the Bavarian captain, Tuesday at a press conference. For 90 minutes, Mbappé got bogged down in the Munich defense, which had planned a very tight marking of the tricolor international.

Facing him, Dayot Upamecano made an immense match. When the defender left some space for his teammate with the Blues, Mbappé only found the side net on a shot from a tight angle (19th) and Yann Sommer’s arms on another unconvincing left foot (67th). Powerless, Mbappé did not manage any dribble in four attempted and did not win any of his six duels. Infuriating as his first supersonic movement after two minutes of play augured a great evening on his part.

In great shape for several months, officially top scorer in the history of PSG since last weekend, Mbappé had not missed a knockout match of this kind for a long time, with the club of the capital as with the French team. Expected as the Parisian hero, the 24-year-old striker will have to wait before lifting the C1 for the first time in his career.

Lionel Messi, not inspired

If we had to summarize Lionel Messi’s match, we would take this 69th minute: a corner badly returned by the Munich players offers an ideal striking position to the Argentinian, the one which allowed him to score so many curled shots in his career. But on the spot, the Pulga gets tangled up, procrastinates and loses the ball. A technical clumsiness forgivable for a lambda player. Not for Messi.

After a failed start to the game, the Argentinian was simply overwhelmed. Beaten in commitment, speed and intensity, Messi was never inspired during this match. To the point of multiplying dubious choices: on several occasions, the Pulga has preferred to steer to the right while its preferential gesture, for years, has been to switch the game to the left. Nuno Mendes, however, was waiting for the ball in this area.

Messi’s two corners for Sergio Ramos’ dangerous headers (64′, 82′) did not make up for his bad game. Already more than average in the first leg, Messi will once again not have been able to bring PSG to C1.

One of the explanations for the Parisian defeat tonight is in the lack of connection between Mbappé and Messi. The two played their part – failed – each in their corner, without ever managing to find each other. Bayern’s success is there and the sublime understanding between the two players seen in Marseille in Ligue 1 (3-0) never appeared in Munich. In all, Mbappé and Messi exchanged only five balls in this meeting, a low total for a long and very sad evening in Bavaria.