Thierry Henry has revealed he told Kylian Mbappe he did not want to “see him” turn up against Arsenal during their pre-match touchline embrace. The Gunners legend was pitch-side at the Emirates as part of CBS Sports’ coverage of the mouthwatering Champions League quarter-final matchup.
And Mbappe made a point of approaching his compatriot as there is huge mutual respect between the two devastating attackers. Both came through the ranks at Monaco and are considered icons of the French national team.
Henry has since revealed he told Mbappe that he hoped the Real Madrid forward would have an off night, explaining: “It’s always a huge respect when I see Kylian Mbappe, we both went to Clairefontaine. Tonight, he’s playing against the team I love most in the world. Listen, I don’t wish him anything bad but tonight, I told him, ‘Please, I don’t want to see you.’ Not tonight, no.”
The light-hearted message clearly paid dividends. While Mbappe certainly had chances in the opening 45 minutes – the best of which was stopped by David Raya – it was a bitterly frustrating evening for the 26-year-old World Cup winner and Real Madrid. Carlo Ancelotti’s side were blown away in the second half by two stunning free-kicks from Declan Rice and a sublime third from Mikel Merino as Arsenal took a giant leap towards the semi-finals.
The superstar summer signing from PSG has since posted on Instagram : “We have to believe until the end,” sparking hope of another valiant fightback at the Bernabeu in next week’s return leg. Real Madrid boss Ancelotti is of the same opinion that all hope is not lost just yet, adding in his post-match press conference: “Normally this team raise their game towards the end of games. It was disappointing, it was poor. We have to be critical of ourselves here and do everything we can next week to recover.”
To make matters worse, midfielder Eduardo Camavinga received a second yellow card in the closing stages of the contest after he kicked the ball away in frustration. Real Madrid’s makeshift backline, which included Federico Valverde at right-back and David Alaba at left-back, struggled to contend with Arsenal’s hunger and potency in the final third.
Alaba in particular, could not get close to Bukayo Saka who was making his first start since December on the right flank for the Gunners. Mikel Arteta was delighted with his team’s performance, explaining: “I’m very proud, we had a very complete and big performance collectively and you need that in the organisation and what we had to do to dominate the game and to create Madrid problems.
“This night is about all two factors, one is the atmosphere that we created 15 minutes before kick-off is something I haven’t seen before, so playing with that energy, with that commitment with your crowd makes a huge difference. And then magic moments, individual moments that decide all matches and the first two goals of Declan sums up the night.”
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