Real Madrid's 2024/25 season is effectively over after a 4-3 loss to Barcelona, and as much as the scoreline flattered a tactically and defensively inept Madrid, the fact of the matter is that they had multiple chances to put this game away for all of their flaws.
And much of that thanks for Real Madrid even being close to keeping their LaLiga title hopes alive in Catalunya this Sunday goes to Kylian Mbappe.
The 26-year-old French international scored a hat-trick of goals, starting with a well-taken penalty that he won and ending with a composed and opportunistic performance.
It wasn't necessarily a well-rounded performance from Mbappe, but it was a striker's performance in transition against the high line of Barcelona.
How far Mbappe has come from the first Clasico of the 2024/25 season when he was whistled for a record eight offsides, struggling against the Barcelona high line in embarrassing fashion.
On Sunday, Mbappe was the one great hope on a Real Madrid side littered with atrocious individual performances. Aside from Mbappe, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was the only one who you could say truly played well, and that's never a good sign.
Kylian Mbappe is Real Madrid's most talented player
For all the criticism Mbappe has gone through this season - and don't worry, I will give him some more in this article - his goal tally and ability to create something out of nothing against Barcelona on multiple occasions this season are indications of a level of quality his teammates do not possess.
For better or for worse, Florentino Perez is going to bulid his new sporting project around Mbappe, and I think this Clasico confirms the reality that it is indeed for the better to have Mbappe around in Madrid.
At the same time, Real Madrid lost this game, and while Mbappe "got his", so to speak, he didn't exactly help bring his teammates into the game or make them better.
And as good as he was off the ball in the attack at threatening the Barcelona defense, he didn't help the team in midfield or bridge the other players into the game, nor was he pressing or tracking back.
That's all fine, though. Because Mbappe changed the game for his team, and he did work hard on the ball and as a striker.
For the first time, perhaps, Mbappe looked like he can be the striker of a new-look Real Madrid, which will be more cohesive and better able to accommodate Mbappe's skill-set under forward-thinking modern manager Xabi Alonso.
What disappoints me about Mbappe, however, is a singular play that proved decisive in the defeat.
Near the end, Aurelien Tchouameni sent in a header from a corner towards the far post, and instead of waiting to see if Wojciech Szczesny, who hasn't been as convicing lately, would make the save or not, Mbappe guaranteed that Barcelona would not concede the game.
Mbappe, clearly in an offsides position, launched himself at the ball. Whether or not he actually got a touch on the ball that nestled into the back of the net is immaterial, because the mere act of throwing himself in front of the goal on that play is impeding the goalkeeper's vision and interfering in the play as an offsides player anyway.
If Mbappe doesn't come into the play, there's no guarantee that Tchouameni scores, sure. But there's still a chance he does, or that Szczesny's save leads to a chance for Real Madrid. But if Mbappe interjects himself, he guarantees that Real Madrid cannot score because he is offsides.
It is a combination of lack of awareness and self-centeredness that makes this play so infuriating. Kylian Mbappe is too good of a footballer - too experienced and too smart - to be reliving the worst highlights of Nani on his own idol Cristiano Ronaldo.
It is the kind of error that is derided in footballing circles because it's such an obvious mental error that feels so brutal to a team, and there's nothing more brutal than erasing a potential goal in a title-deciding Clasico.
I don't want to belabor this lapse too much, because Mbappe was so good for Real Madrid vs. Barcelona that he was the only reason Los Blancos even had a chance to win this game.
Essentially, I wouldn't be sitting here complaining about Mbappe robbing Tchouameni of an equalizer if it weren't for Mbappe's hat-trick and the constant threat he carried to the Barcelona back line on and off the ball.
At the same time, Real Madrid are staring down a season without any trophies despite bringing Mbappe into the side that won LaLiga and the Champions League last season.
It's a calamitous result that has cost Los Blancos legendary manager Carlo Ancelotti and potentially also Rodrygo Goes. So there is room for everyone, even the team's most talented player, to receive constructive criticism.
If there's one thing Mbappe needs to take with him into the offseason, it's this. As good as he is, he can't win all the silverware or become the legendary he is destined to become without his team.
With every play he takes, he needs to learn how to balance his own desire to win and help the team with goals and individual brilliance vs. remembering where he is, where his teammates are, and what the team needs in that moment to win.
That's the level of maturity Mbappe is still missing before he can take that next step to becoming a (near) Cristiano-level player in this sport.