Kylian Mbappe leaned forward with his head bowed and hands on his thighs.
Another Champions League dream with Paris Saint-Germain was over, ruined by the ruthless efficiency of a Borussia Dortmund team that stopped him from scoring in both legs of their Champions League semi-final and recorded a 1-0 win in each.
Mbappe missed two good chances in the second leg at the Parc des Princes.
“I tried to help my team as best as I could but I didn’t do enough,” Mbappe said.
“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.
“We always want to win at PSG, we feel sad. We had chances to score (and) when you don’t, when you’re not efficient at both ends, it’s difficult to go through.”
PSG coach Luis Enrique consoled Mbappe, and then his star striker trudged off the field and toward a new destination next season.
Mbappe didn’t address questions about his future. Most observers expect his next club to be Real Madrid, which lead PSG 14-0 in European Cup trophies.
Madrid has tried to lure Mbappe before.
In 2021, PSG turned down a bid of €180 million ($194 million) from Madrid for the 2018 World Cup-winning forward, who went on to sign a new contract with PSG — on which he didn’t take up the option for an extra year. Earlier this year he told PSG he’s leaving at the end of the season.
Seven years ago, he joined amid huge hype as the best young player in France and maybe the world. PSG paid a fee of €170 million ($183 million) when Mbappe joined from Monaco in the summer of 2017.
Mbappe had starred for Monaco as an 18-year-old sensation when it reached the semi-finals of the Champions League — knocking out Dortmund along the way with three goals in the quarter finals.
He accepted his share of the blame for not being able to reproduce his magic in front of goal, seven years later, as a global superstar with 46 goals for France and the scorer of a hat-trick in a men’s World Cup final to become the tournament’s top scorer two years ago.
Reuters. AP/PTI
