Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe has been setting records at the World Cup, but the run of beating up on inferior teams stopped. For the first time this summer, Mbappe and France met their match, running up into the sort of juggernaut with the philosophy of Mbappe's old PSG manager Luis Enrique; Spanish football is all about the mentality that the star is the team.
Spain controlled the game and made Mbappe look worse than ordinary. Without facing the likes of Sweden and Morocco, Mbappe looked like the version of Mbappe Real Madrid fans grew increasingly frustrated with during the 2025/26 season, especially in the second half of the game.
He was awful. Mbappe was clamped down by the Spanish defense, creating nothing, dribbling past nobody, showing no real effort or drive, and making his most notable contributions as poor finishes and laughable offsides.
Kylian Mbappe still hasn't solved a huge problem
It was exactly the sort of big game disasterclass against tough defenses that Kylian Mbappe has become known for by the Real Madrid fans, and while their opinion seemed unpopular, Marc Cucurella, one of the newest Madridistas this summer, exposed just how off the pace Mbappe is when the actual going gets rough.
Real Madrid fans have to go back to the old philosophy that maybe Mbappe is an anti Madrid player. Whereas most Real Madrid players elevate their game on the biggest stage as Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior so often do, Mbappe tends to sink, with the notable exception of the last minutes of the 2022 World Cup Final.
Madridistas do not want to overreact and want to back Mbappe, which is the position new manager Jose Mourinho will be taking after being hired by Florentino Perez. But watching how badly Marc Cucurella owned him in the one on one duels and outworked and outsmarted him, the worst fears of the Madrid faithful are back.
It is jarring how Mbappe only seems to be in his element when things are easy for him and he gets to be dominant, when he does not have to fight tooth and nail and really work for it. Spain probably knew that, coming into this World Cup semifinal, and they did everything they could to frustrate the French superstar striker.
Mbappe just isn't an elite No. 9 in the biggest games against the top opponents, and he still has to prove that narrative wrong in the 2026/27 season for Real Madrid. The harsh reality is that Mbappe is less Cristiano Ronaldo than he thinks he is.
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