Kylian Mbappe has been under serious pressure over the last few weeks, and that heightened about another big moment during Real Madrid’s defeat at Athletic Club on Wednesday. The French attacker missed a crucial penalty at San Mames that would have made it 1-1, before Los Blancos went on to be defeated 2-1.
It was Mbappe’s second penalty miss in seven days. He was denied by Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher that denied him last week, and in Bilbao, it was the turn of Julen Agirrezabala to do so. As per Marca, the latter revealed that he took inspiration from Mbappe’s failure at Anfield the week prior.
“We study everything a lot in these actions. Mbappe is a good finisher and I decided to go to the same place where he missed the previous one because I thought he was going to repeat that shot. I saved the penalty, and now I feel even more comfortable.”
Mbappe may be taken out of the firing line by Real Madrid in terms of penalty duty, especially as Jude Bellingham scored his last effort (vs Getafe). It remains to be seen what the decision on this is.
