Kylian Mbappe doesn’t often get it wrong - but the Paris Saint-Germain superstar endured a minute of misery in his latest showing.
The 24-year-old was one of the stars of the recent World Cup, becoming the second player in history to score a hat-trick in the final. That ultimately wasn’t enough for France to retain their title, losing to Lionel Messi ’s Argentina on penalties.
During the thrilling final in December, Mbappe scored twice from the spot, the second of which came in the dreaded shootout. But for once, his coolness from 12 yards eluded him as he missed TWO penalties in the space of 100 seconds on Wednesday night.
The PSG forward was given an early chance to give his side the lead away at Montpellier when Sergio Ramos was fouled in the box after seven minutes. However, Montpellier keeper Benjamin Lecomte guessed correctly and got a strong hand to deny the well-struck penalty.
In remarkable scenes, VAR then concluded that Lecomte had come off his line too early, earning Mbappe a welcome reprieve. But after a long wait, he was denied again, this time the keeper pushing his effort onto the post.
The embarrassment didn’t stop there though, as the ball deflected back into Mbappe’s path with the goal at his mercy. And with everybody inside the Stade de la Mosson waiting for the net to bulge, he duly fired the rebound well over the crossbar.
Mbappe somehow managed to find a wry smile as the home fans celebrated around him, probably resigned to the fact it couldn’t get much worse. Until it did.
A little over 10 minutes after he fluffed his lines from the spot, Mbappe pulled up off the ball, holding his hamstring and was forced to be withdrawn for Hugo Ekitike. All of this came on the same night that he lost his status as Ligue 1’s top scorer.
That position now belongs to Arsenal loanee Folarin Balogun. The Gunners youngster is enjoying a brilliant spell at Reims and continued his fine form with a hat-trick against Lorient to move him to 14 goals for the season.
Elsewhere in the French top flight Marseille beat Nantes 2-0 away from home to put the pressure on PSG and move just three points behind the leaders. And while Mbappe was the lowlight of their first half showing, he certainly wasn’t the only source of frustration.
Following Mbappe’s withdrawal, Sergio Ramos was forced off after a nasty clash of heads, before Messi finally put the visitors in front. But once again, those celebrations were cut short when VAR disallowed the goal for an offside.
Christophe Galtier then had chance to calm his charges down and after 10 minutes of the second half, they broke the deadlock at last, with Fabian Ruiz doing what Mbappe couldn't.
