Kylian Mbapped scored the 19th goal of his World Cup career, and at some point in the future, he will officially surpass Lionel Messi as the leading goal scorer in the tournament's history, just as the Real Madrid star has already left club icon Ronaldo Nazario and German national team hero Miroslav Klose in the dust on the all time charts.
He and his French national teammates are through to the World Cup quarterfinals after surviving a tense matchup against a Paraguay side that performed all the Dark Arts of a lower level La Liga side in an effort to get the job done.
And while winning by any means necessary is the key, Real Madrid fans are a more critical bunch, and after not winning any trophies in two consecutive seasons while watching Mbappe's old club PSG take home back to back Champions League crowns, they will be demanding more from KM10 in 2026/27.
Kylian Mbappe's complaints wlll not interest Madridistas
All the goals against poorly constructed teams that left themselves wide open for the taking like Iraq and Sweden will not impress Madridistas. Facing a low block like the ones Real Madrid usually face, Kylian Mbappe ran into the same exact issues against Paraguay that haunt him against the Getafes and Mallorcas of the world.
Real Madrid need Mbappe to be more of a presence in these matches. Against Paraguay, he was on the periphery of the game too many times, and when he did get amazing chances to score, he whiffed badly. He got beaten by the Paraguayan goalkeeper on a double save, but he also had an egregious error on a Mike Maignan crafted breakaway in which he got away with handling the ball before it harmlessly ended up in a corner.
Although Mbappe has been the arguable MVP of the 2026 World Cup tournament and has largely been back in his element as a player and leader for Les Bleus, Real Madrid fans have seen this scene play out before: they know Mbappe is great for France and against certain opponents, but when he faces adversity against the kind of style of opponent that Paraguay is, he falls short of the true Real Madrid legends like Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul, and Karim Benzema.
The next step Mbappe needs to take in his career is learn to play against top defenses that do not give him an inch, or organized low blocks. He needs to be smarter with the ball, he needs to be more active off the ball, and he needs to use his teammates to help him instead of getting in their way, which is what he unfortunately did to Ousmane Dembele in this win. Crying about Paraguay will not go over well with Madridistas, nor will barely winning impress them; Mbappe needs to kill these teams off just as much as he does a Sweden or a Kairat Almaty.
Because if it were not for a dubious penalty on a Desire Doue play in which the youngster was looking for contact in the box, France may have fallen victim to an upset against one of the worst teams in the knockout stages - a team the United States tore to shreds with ease.
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