Kylian Mbappé is leaving Paris Saint‑Germain, but he is not going to just let go: there is one last thing to do before he leaves. Two superbly taken goals early in each half, a portrait of a player who stands above, defeated Real Sociedad and carried PSG to the Champions League quarter-finals and one small step closer to the trophy that obsesses them all.
If Luis Enrique, the coach charged with changing a culture and preparing a post-Mbappé era, insisted his side had “suffered” to win the first leg, in the second he said everything had gone swimmingly, any hope of a home comeback extinguished early by an exhibition from the man about to bid farewell.
“If they play like this, they are candidates to win the competition, I have no doubt,” the Real coach, Imanol Alguacil, said when it was over. It was not, Alguacil insisted, just about Mbappé, citing the “brutal” intensity with which PSG, a side “much stronger and much faster than us”, had played.
Ultimately, though, he was the one who decided this, the Real captain, Mikel Oyarzabal, calling him unique.
Luis Enrique said: “When you leave him in the final third facing the keeper he’s lethal.” Having opened the scoring in Paris he added two more here to ease PSG to a 2-1 win, 4-1 on aggregate. And with him, ease really does seem to be the word.
The resistance was broken after just 15 minutes, and it was yet another manifestation of the smooth brutality of Mbappé, that unanswerable superiority. Released by Ousmane Dembélé, he surged up the left and into the area. Igor Zubeldia faced him with his arms behind his back as this wasn’t hard enough anyway. Mbappé tapped on the break, the accelerator, the brake and the accelerator again, just a little each time but enough to send his marker out of the way, balance gone. And then, bam, the ball flew past Álex Remiro and into the far corner, hard enough to unhook the net.
For a moment, in fact, the referee Michael Oliver stopped and the Reale Arena wondered if they were somehow going to get let off; maybe it could be ruled out. But on what grounds? Being too good perhaps. Released by Luis Enrique’s decision to bring Dembélé inside, leaving him the left wing, there was certainly no obvious way of stopping him. Three men in bibs came to fix the damage done and Mbappé carried on regardless.
Even before the goal he had glided past everyone and all the way to the byline where he pulled back for Bradley Barcola, who should have scored from a couple of yards but was denied by Remiro. After it, he dashed all the way towards the other post to strike a first-time shot that Remiro somehow kept out with his boot.
PSG were in control and if Real Sociedad knew they had to step forward, they were all too aware of the risk that ran while Mbappé was loitering with intent on the left. The home side were unable to release a shot of any real threat until Take Kubo’s effort flew wide right on half‑time.
PSG had six shots by then. Mbappé had taken three of them. The fourth was set up by him and a fifth sort of was, indirectly at least: La Real backed off Warren Zaïre-Emery, correctly judging that preferable to allowing him to play the ball to Mbappé who soon added to those figures and effectively ended the tie – if he had not already – with a goal that was about as Mbappé as it gets.
Put him in front of goal, as Lee Kang‑in did on 56 minutes, and there is never the slightest hint of nerves, rather a sense of supreme ease. As he flashes away, it is hard to avoid feeling you have seen this before and there is no outcome other than the ball ending in the net. Mbappé opened out his body, setting himself to bend it into the far corner and, with a flick of the eyes and the ankle, pulled it side-footed past Remiro at the near post instead.
It was done but Real rebelled, their second-half performance more befitting the team that returned to the Champions League a decade later and won their group so impressively. Luis Enrique insisted PSG had been “lucky not to play them in September” and Real have collapsed lately but they remained determined to fulfil their manager’s promise to make their fans proud whatever the result, to give them one last explosion before exiting.
Ander Barrenetxea headed in only for the linesman’s flag to go up, a neat move on one side left Martin Zubimendi slicing over and an equally neat move on the other saw Beñat Turrientes denied by a superb save from Gianluigi Donnarumma. Still they came, Jon Olasagasti clipping a shot onto the roof of the net before, in the 89th minute, Mikel Merino delivered the goal they deserved, supporters singing all the way to the finish, despite being defeated by the better team and the better man.
