Mbappé, deliverance!

Kylian Mbappe scored twice and opened his league goals tally to help Real Madrid beat Betis Sevilla.

Kylian Mbappé will have waited until the fourth day of La Liga to open his goal counter in the league with Real Madrid. And it will have even taken more than an hour for the captain of the French team to shake the net at Santiago Bernabeu, to get the Merengues out of a complicated situation against Betis Seville (2-0).

Held in check by a vexing opponent, Carlo Ancelotti’s players relied on a clever backheel from Federico Valverde to send Mbappé into a duel with Rui Silva. With his left foot and on the ground, the former Paris Saint-Germain striker slipped the ball under the Portuguese goalkeeper and was able to celebrate as he likes to do, with a slide accompanied by an imperial posture (1-0, 67th).

Forced to come out of their entrenchments, the Andalusians exposed themselves to counterattacks and committed the irreparable on Vinicius Jr at the start of the last quarter of an hour. This time, there was no discord or confusion over the identity of the shooter. It was Mbappé, summoned to take responsibility by the Spanish press, who wanted him to assert himself as the team’s star 9, who executed the sentence by wrong-footing Silva (2-0, 75th).

Before that, it was still complicated…

It must be admitted that it was better for Mbappé that he finally found the flaw. Because in the game and in the connection with his partners, this meeting against Betis will have once again highlighted real difficulties. Sometimes forgotten by his teammates, sometimes unable to be placed in the right place, the best scorer in the history of PSG spent a good hour searching for himself and no doubt preparing himself mentally to face new criticism. Especially after one or two misses that we would never have imagined him capable of when he wore the Paris jersey… Rather than lowering his head, the former Monaco player waited for his time and this offering from Valverde to unlock his confidence.

Carlo Ancelotti made no mistake and wanted to give his new striker a little round of compliments by taking him off in the 84th minute of play, to the rapturous applause of the Bernabeu.

Kylian Mbappé will not be able to immediately follow up with Real Madrid to try to build on this evening that he will not forget. He will join the French team to play two matches with the Blues, against Italy and Belgium. On his return, he will once again be expected, observed and even scrutinized. This is the lot of players who arrive at Real Madrid with the superstar label and Mbappé must prove himself worthy of the constellation of stars who have worn the jersey of the captain’s club.