Kylian Mbappe had another game for the ages in the World Cup quarterfinals, scoring his 20th career goal of the most prestigious tournament in football with a gorgeous, curled finish struck so beautifully just beyond the far post that Bono had no prayer of stopping this pearl of a shot from the legendary Frenchman.
The Real Madrid No. 9's goal came after he had missed a penalty in the first half under controversial circumstances, with the referees delaying the restart while squabbling over a penalty call that was rather obvious from the VAR monitor.
Mbappe's brilliant game also included an assist to seal the player becoming the first in World Cup history to have two different tournaments with at least 10 goal contributions. And while Ousmane Dembele still had to make a brilliant finish from a bit of range to beat Morocco's Bono to seal the 2-0 win for France, the assist was more than just a run of the mill pass from Mbappe.
Kylian Mbappe is no longer The Dictator
As Dembele explains, Mbappe did a lot of unselfish work on and off the ball and with the pass to help set the goal up for the PSG superstar. He told reporters after the game, via Madrid Xtra, "The play? Kylian told me to stay central, and as soon as we got the chance, we’d hit them on the counterattack. That’s what happened. Then he made a great run as well to create space for me. I saw I had a bit of room, so I just tried to keep my shot on target, and fortunately it went in.”
During the 2025/26 season, Real Madrid fans were frustrated by Kylian Mbappe getting in the way of his teammates and playing selfishly, not passing it to the others and not letting the likes of Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior get involved, too. It was all just revolving around Mbappe.
But for the French national team, Mbappe has legitimately changed and showed a different side to his game, becoming a true leader as the captain of the country, leading Didier Deschamps to rather vociferously defend Mbappe against accusations that he is a selfish dictator or anything of the sort.
Ousmane Dembele clearly appreciates all that Mbappe is doing for him with France, and even in the group stages, Mbappe made a big point of boosting up Dembele to the press as the reigning Ballon d'Or and then put his money where his mouth is with key assists. If Mbappe can do this with Madrid in the 2026/27 season, Jose Mourinho will finally have his Champions League in Royal White.
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