At the Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid lost to Barcelona 4-0, and Kylian Mbappe had a nightmare El Clasico debut. With Robert Lewandowski’s brace plus goals from Lamine Yamal and Raphinha leading Barcelona’s defense, Madrid was outplayed and left reeling.
Even though he is regarded as one of Europe’s most dangerous attackers, Mbappe found it difficult to adapt to Barcelona’s defensive strategies, which resulted in a startlingly high number of offsides. The Frenchman had one of his most frustrating games this season, being offside eight times and having two of his goals disallowed. With this figure, Mbappe approaches a Real Madrid record first held by Cristiano Ronaldo, who received 22 offside flags in his first 10 La Liga games during the 2013–14 campaign.
Mbappe now leads all players in Europe’s top leagues with 17 offsides in La Liga this season, surpassing players like Moise Kean of Fiorentina and Dominic Calvert-Lewin of Everton. As he becomes used to Madrid’s high-stakes games, his offside issues highlight the changes that must be made.
