Kylian Mbappe keenly missed as Real Madrid barely scrape past Athletic Club | OneFootball

Following the defeat to Arsenal that brought an end to their UEFA Champions League campaign at the quarter-final stage, Real Madrid returned to action in La Liga with a match against Athletic Club.

Playing against one of the stronger teams in La Liga was always going to be difficult for the Merengues, but this tie was made even more challenging for Carlo Ancelotti with the absence of his team’s star forward, Kylian Mbappe, who is nursing a sprain and was also suspended for this game after his red card against Alaves.

As expected, Los Blancos missed the French forward quite a lot in this match, as they found it difficult to finish almost all of the numerous chances they created against Ernesto Valverde’s side.

As the match report from Sofascore shows, Real Madrid enjoyed 74% ball possession in this game, and thus were clearly the dominant side. This possession was also not stale, as they created up to 4 big chances, but were able to score only a single goal, that too in the very last minutes of the game.

The Merengues took a total of 22 shots against the Basque side, and forced Unai Simon into making 6 saves as 7 of these shots were on target. Another 8 shots went off-target, while the defending team blocked another 7 shots taken by Los Blancos. 15 of these 22 shots had come from inside the box and another 7 from outside the box.

One can only imagine Kylian Mbappe playing in this game and taking advantage of all these opportunities. This season, he has scored 22 La Liga goals for Real Madrid so far, and in addition to being the top scorer for his team, he is also competing with Robert Lewandowski for the Pichichi title.

His ability to find space in the box and to finish chances is no secret, and there is every reason to believe that he would have scored some goals to add to this tally if he were available for the game last night.

However, he is not expected to play in the upcoming match against Getafe as well, and will hopefully return to the pitch for the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona on Saturday.

Still, he will not have to worry about Lewandowski gaining further ground over him in the Pichichi race, as the Pole was unable to score against Celta Vigo and also suffered a physical problem that is expected to keep him out of action for the next three weeks.