Kylian Mbappe’s curious Clasico debut: Eight offsides, some big misses and clipped confidence

The date was November 24, 2018.

As referee Juan Martinez Munuera blew the whistle for full time, a disappointed Real Madrid team headed for the tunnel following a 3-0 La Liga defeat at Eibar, a game where Karim Benzema was flagged offside seven times, equalling a league record set by Elche’s Jonathas de Jesus in May 2015.

Nearly six years later, Kylian Mbappe, Benzema’s long-term replacement, went one better to make the unwanted record his own against another team in red and blue. Only this was in El Clasico in front of nearly 80,000 at the Bernabeu and millions worldwide as Real Madrid slumped to a 4-0 defeat.

Mbappe’s first Clasico was the subject of hype given he had six goals in four matches against Barcelona, including a hat-trick at Camp Nou. He also usually delivers in big games, with three goals in five matches against his current employers in the Champions League, four goals in two World Cup finals for France and 38 in 52 combined Ligue 1 games against Marseille, Lyon, Monaco and Lille.

On Saturday, Barca’s high line was expected to present him with opportunities if he and partner Vinicius Junior timed their runs, given their superior pace compared with Barcelona’s defenders.

A simple strategy on paper, but Mbappe struggled due to a combination of the occasion, an under-developed chemistry with his team-mates, and downright profligacy.

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From kick-off on Saturday, Madrid’s approach was clear.

Their defenders would kick the ball up the pitch leaving Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham to win their duels.

If they lost the ball in the first phase, the physicality of Federico Valverde, Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga gave them the upper hand against Barcelona’s front six. All three Madrid midfielders can also play through the press with quick passes, and this combination of qualities troubled Barca through the first half.

The final pieces of the jigsaw were well-timed runs and assured finishing, but two offsides within the opening 90 seconds of the game suggested that was easier said than done.

The second of those saw Camavinga slip Mbappe in behind in the wide gap between Jules Kounde, wary of Vinicius Jr, and Inigo Martinez after Pau Cubarsi stepped up to close Camavinga down. Mbappe raced through, but his finish was poor as he dragged it wide.

In the next 12 minutes, Mbappe twice contributed without the ball, pressing higher than he has ever done this season to force Martinez to go long and help his team regain possession. He also brought down a long pass from Eder Militao before spraying it out wide to Vinicius Jr to kickstart an attack.

Mbappe’s keenness to contribute was evident and his off-the-ball work laid the foundations for his side’s approach to the game.

Then came the third offside, which indicated that he had not learned from the previous instances.

Vinicius Jr once again pinned Kounde on the right and, while Cubarsi did not push up, Mbappe found space between the two Barcelona centre-backs. Mbappe looked over his shoulder, but still began his run a tad too early from Camavinga’s pass.

He was flagged offside after squaring the ball for Bellingham, who forced a fantastic save from Inaki Pena…

More off-the-ball pressure on Martinez forced another Barcelona turnover before the most glaring of Mbappe’s eight offsides arrived in the 19th minute. In this instance, too, he looked over his shoulder but made a premature run to meet Bellingham’s hooked pass forward from the right wing.

Six minutes later, Barca trapped him offside yet again. On this occasion, Mbappe got himself back onside but kept watching the ball, meaning he did not notice Cubarsi taking an extra step forward. When Ferland Mendy played him in from the left, he was a few inches ahead of the back line.

Mbappe was getting closer to figuring it out, though, and seemed to have done just that on the half-hour mark.

A searching ball from Antonio Rudiger found Lucas Vazquez on the right flank. Mbappe was notably offside when Vazquez received the ball but tracked back as Alejandro Balde closed down the Madrid captain. A couple of touches later, Vazquez released Mbappe in between and behind the centre-backs, and he raced forward before finishing with a deft chip…

… only for Madrid’s joy to be cut short after a VAR check.

This was the closest of the lot as the semi-automated replay below suggests. Interestingly, Vinicius Jr seemed to have his doubts when the goal went in as suggested by his initial hesitance (watch above) to join the celebrations.

The marginal nature of the call suggests that Vazquez, who had time and space thanks to Bellingham’s positioning, could have played the pass earlier.

Three minutes later, another long ball from the home defence caused Barcelona problems. Mbappe won the one-v-one against Cubarsi and raced forward, only for Martinez to track back and flick the ball behind for a corner.

That was the striker’s final telling contribution of the half as the teams went into the break level.

Madrid had created openings but, as the expected-goals (xG) chart below shows, offsides had rendered them largely meaningless with their xG not too far away from Barcelona’s, despite the visitors creating little of note.

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The second half offered Madrid a chance to build on their dominance and, four minutes in, Mbappe made a well-timed run from behind Cubarsi to latch onto a Vazquez pass on the counter. His first touch was slightly heavy, allowing Cubarsi to put the ball behind for a corner. But this was encouraging for the Frenchman and his side.

That optimism, however, evaporated quickly.

In the 54th minute, the first signs of issues with Mbappe’s pressing could be seen. A half-hearted attempt to stop Marc Casado allowed the Barca midfielder to saunter into space and thread the needle to find Robert Lewandowski in Barcelona’s first successful attempt to play through Madrid.

Lewandowski, onside due to Mendy’s poor positioning, was clinical with his finish. The visitors led 1-0.

Two minutes later, more tepid pressing high up the pitch and a neat Barcelona passing move — made possible by the composure of half-time substitute Frenkie de Jong — saw Lewandowski score again from a Balde cross.

Now 2-0 down, Madrid’s backs were against the wall, but they created nothing of note until the 61st minute when Mbappe conjured his first legitimate shot of the game. Receiving a pass from Camavinga on the left, he cut inside on to his favoured right foot before firing a low shot straight at Pena.

A second shot followed three minutes later, coming after another well-timed run by Mbappe between Cubarsi and Martinez. He latched onto Vinicius Jr’s outside-of-the-boot pass from the left wing to bear down on goal, but Pena came well off his line to narrow the angle.

Rather than taking it around or lifting it over him, Mbappe shot first time, and straight at Pena.

Mbappe’s involvement was growing, but his struggles with the offside trap returned in the 66th minute.

Following a miscontrol by Raphinha in Madrid’s defensive third, Vazquez found Valverde, who was immediately closed down by Dani Olmo. Mbappe remained offside during both these actions.

Valverde initially looks up to find Mbappe (as well as Vinicius Jr and Bellingham) still in an offside position, allowing Olmo to apply more pressure. With no other options, he played the only available pass: to the Frenchman. Mbappe went on to finish the move with a shot into Pena’s far corner but was glaringly offside once again.

Mbappe’s third and final shot of the match came in the 71st minute.

After Olmo lost possession in his own half, Luka Modric lifted the ball over the back line to find Mbappe, who timed his run on Martinez’s blindside to perfection to create another one-vs-one opportunity. This time around, Pena stayed closer to the edge of the six-yard box, daring Mbappe to beat him at either post.

Mbappe chose the far post, but his execution was poor as Pena saved once again without breaking a sweat.

Mbappe’s final involvement in the game came in the opening seconds of stoppage time in a near-perfect example of how Madrid envisioned their original game plan would play out.

Bellingham drew Cubarsi forward for a long ball, which travelled over both and into the path of Vinicius Jr. He comfortably turned Kounde on the halfway line before finding Mbappe on the left flank. Mbappe raced through and forced a near-post save from Pena but, thanks to a clever dart backwards by Martinez, Cubarsi could recover to re-lay the offside trap again.

The result? The assistant referee’s flag went up yet again, marking 12 infractions for the hosts and eight for Mbappe alone…

In between Mbappe’s final shot and final offside, Barcelona had scored twice. The first was a thunderous near-post effort from Lamine Yamal, partially reminiscent of Mbappe’s first goal from his Camp Nou hat-trick in 2021. The second was a deft chip by Raphinha, who easily broke Madrid’s final line of defence from a long ball after they committed men forward.

Those goals epitomised what Madrid needed from Mbappe on the night, but he could never put both together.

At times, the occasion and perhaps an eagerness to make an impact seemed to overcome him; at others, he simply did not display the confidence that many associate with his game, particularly in front of goal. Being on the wrong side of those margins does not go unpunished in fixtures as big as this.

There is also the question of synergy with his new team-mates, which will improve with time. The Barcelona match stands out due to the volume of offsides, but it is worth noting that Mbappe had been caught offside at least once in seven of his nine La Liga games before Saturday.

Madrid as a team have been caught offside only 24 times this season, and Mbappe has contributed 17 of those. Vinicius Jr was offside twice against Barcelona but only once previously all season. The Brazilian has been smart with his runs in the knowledge of when his team-mates will release the ball and the awareness that he can beat most defenders with his pace.

For this partnership to work on the biggest stages — particularly given the duo’s limitations in leading the press — Mbappe will need to develop a similar in-game intelligence on top of improved chemistry with his team-mates. He will also need to reduce his profligacy when the chances arrive, with his six league goals this season coming from an xG of 7.7.

Playing for Madrid was Mbappe’s ultimate dream. With that realised, the hardest part of the job begins now.

(Top photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)