Kylian Mbappe
Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappé gets the credit when his team wins. And to his credit, he took the blame when they lost on Tuesday.
The France international said his team’s loss to Dortmund in the Champions League (CL) semifinals — which finished 2-0 on aggregate after PSG’s 1-0 loss in the second leg — was down to missed chances, a few of which came from him.
“I tried to help my team as best as I could but I didn’t do enough,” Mbappé said after the game at Parc des Princes. “When we talk about being efficient in the boxes, I think I’m the one targeted. I’m the guy who should score goals and be decisive. When things are good, I take all the limelight and when they are not, you have to take the shadow. That’s not a problem.
“The first one who should have scored tonight was me. That’s life and we have to move on, me and the team.”
With nearly 70% of the possession and 30 shots in the second leg loss, the Ligue 1 champs hit the woodwork four times and came away empty-handed, but Mbappé said PSG weren’t unlucky, they just weren’t good enough.
“I don’t know if they were better than us. We don’t need to denigrate them,” Mbappé said. “In my humble opinion, they were superior in the two boxes. They came once or twice in ours and scored. We went often in theirs and we never managed to score. It’s a fact.
“I don’t like to talk about being unlucky. When you are good, it doesn’t hit the post, it goes in. Today, we were not good enough, us the attackers.”
Dortmund scored early in the second half through Mats Hummels and did a good job of keeping Mbappé, who played through the middle primarily as opposed to down the left wing, in check.
It could be Mbappé’s last Champions League game with PSG, as the World Cup winner is expected to leave the club at the end of the season. But when asked about his reported move to Real Madrid this summer, Mbappé merely rolled his eyes at reporters and walked away.