Among the anecdotes in George Best’s obituaries, there was one detailing how he had scored a without trying. Assigned to mark Best, a defender panicked when the roles had reversed, that is he had the ball and Best stood on guard. A hurried back-pass followed for which his goalkeeper was not ready. The result: an own goal but one created by the aura of Best.
Kylian Mbappe’s brace, or that of Harry Kane, didn’t come from similar circumstances but it would be difficult to argue that their reputation had nothing to do with the goals that took Paris St-Germain and Bayern Munich to the Champions League quarter-finals. Kane’s goals were brilliant poacher’s efforts; those by Mbappe encapsulated everything he is known for: power, pace and panache. Quite incredibly, they are averaging a goal a game for their clubs: Mbappe has 34 in 34 and Kane 33 in 33. Both also have six Champions League goals.
Don’t blame Real Sociedad’s right back Hamari Traore or right-side central defender Igor Zubeldia if they felt like the defender marking Best. By the 10th minute, Mbappe had blasted one over after breaking free and found Bradley Barcola by being so fleet of foot that Traore lost him. And when he scored in the 15th minute, it was after beating Traore and leaving Zubeldia transfixed hands behind his back.
Zubeldia had followed him to the goalline and when Mbappe shifted inside so did he. Mbappe paused as if shaping to shoot forcing a leg out from Zubeldia making him lose balance and sight of the ball. Mbappe then took two steps inside and fired so powerfully into the far corner that goal netting needed re-stitching. Before the half ended, he drifted in, dragging Zubeldia with him, and fired a snap shot that Alex Remiro in the Real Sociedad goal parried.
It could have been the hattrick that wasn’t. For in the 56th minute when Mbappe got his second it was again Zubeldia who had to suffer. The centre-back was never going to win the foot race after Lee Kang-in lobbed over the high line but what stood out was how Mbappe opened his body as if he would aim for the far post and then slipped it in the near side. The way he did it without breaking stride was breathtaking. Television cameras caught Traore and Takefusa Kubo looking like they were gobsmacked.
“When you leave him in the final third, facing the keeper he is lethal.” PSG manager Luis Enrique was saying what the world knew about Mbappe but wouldn’t mind hearing again.
Substituted against Monaco, Mbappe watched Saturday’s Ligue 1 game with his mother fuelling speculation about a breakdown in relation between the manager and his marquee . On Tuesday, Mbappe was a handful through the full game. PSG controlled the game by keeping him alone upfront and Mbappe tried to create a move for Vitinha in the 77th and find the midfielder with a reverse pass in stoppage time. In between, he formed an attacking triangle with Lee and Vitinha that nearly fetched another goal. Up in the stands, club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi was beaming.
“What would you say about your goals today,” Mbappe was asked in a flash interview. “It’s what I do… Today I did a nice job,” he said.
PSG went into this game on the back of two draws, Bayern had won once in their last five which included three defeats. Yet, ahead of the game they were trailing 0-1, Thomas Mueller had written in his newsletter that they would go through marching like a fire brigade using a Bavarian phrase. Unlike Mbappe, Kane was hardly involved in the first half-hour; it was Ciro Immobile’s miss that was the talking point, one that could have plunged Bayern, 10 points behind Bayer Leverkusen in Bundesliga, into deeper gloom.
It needed a Kane to help lift it, if only for the night, with a 39th minute header. A striker can sniff goals is one of football’s oldest sayings and Kane showed twice how he is alert to any possibility. Raphael Guerreiro’s shot coming his way was a stroke of luck, Kane sneaking away from his marker to nod home was not. That was also being a “Raumdeuter” which, according to Mueller, is someone aware of space. It was appropriate that Mueller scored the second in 45+2 by being in the right place to meet a Matthijs de Ligt screamer that may have been swerving out.
It was off a Leroy Sane rebound that Kane put the game to bed in the 66th minute. Again, it was his positioning, the ability to halt his movement and stick out a leg that summed up his effectivity and efficiency. As is his wont, Kane dropped deep to link up play. That is not Mbappe’s style; Ousmane Dembele and Fabian Ruiz had to do compensate for his staying up the park. There will be stiffer tests but together on Tuesday, Mbappe and Kane lit up a big European night.