Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti hailed Kylian Mbappe “the best player in European football” after the PSG star proved the difference in Tuesday night’s Champions League last-16 meeting between the club.
Mbappe had already been the game’s standout player before slotting a 94th-minute winner through the legs of Thibaut Courtois to give the French side a 1-0 first-leg lead to take to Spain in three weeks’ time.
The 23-year-old will be out of contract at Parc des Princes in the summer and has been strongly linked with a free agent move to the Bernabeu, with some reports suggesting the deal is as good as done.
Ahead of kick-off, however, Ancelotti warned the forward would only be focused on knocking his side out of Europe and post-match the Italian looked to have been proved right.
“Mbappe is the best player in European football,” Ancelotti said, before going on to insist his side still have every chance of reaching the quarter-finals, despite a tepid performance that saw them fortunate to leave Paris only a goal down, with Lionel Messi missing a second-half penalty.
“We didn’t play well but we are not dead yet,” he added.
“We need to press more in the second leg. We are behind on the scoreboard and need to be better on the ball, which we didn’t do well today.
“We couldn’t get out with the ball and we misplaced a lot of passes because of their high press. They did that well and put us under difficulty in that sense.”
