Kylian Mbappe said he wasn’t “decisive” enough in front of goal as Borussia Dortmund eliminated his Paris Saint-Germain team from the Champions League.
PSG endured another agonising Champions League defeat, this time against Dortmund in the semi-finals, who triumphed 2-0 on aggregate. The Germans advanced to the finals courtesy to Niclas Fullkrug’s goal in the first leg and Mats Hummels’ effort in the second. In Tuesday’s 1-0 second-leg loss at Parc des Princes, the French team had 30 shots to the visitors’ seven, 70 percent possession, and six shots off the post. Following the match, World Cup champion Mbappe accepted some blame for his team’s elimination.
The Frenchman said: “I tried to help my team as best as I could but I didn’t do enough. When we talk about being efficient in the boxes, I think I’m the one targeted. I’m the guy who should score goals and be decisive. When things are good, I take all the limelight and when they are not, you have to take the shadow. That’s not a problem. The first one who should have scored tonight was me. That’s life and we have to move on, me and the team.”
He added: “I don’t know if they were better than us. We don’t need to denigrate them. In my humble opinion, they were superior in the two boxes. They came once or twice in ours and scored. We went often in theirs and we never managed to score. It’s a fact. I don’t like to talk about being unlucky. When you are good, it doesn’t hit the post, it goes in. Today, we were not good enough, us the attackers.”
Mbappe looks set to join Real Madrid this summer after his contract expires, ending a six-year stint with the Ligue 1 giants. Despite winning more than a dozen domestic trophies in that time, the 25-year-old will leave the club without winning the prize they most desired – the Champions League. This could be the end of an era for PSG.
Mbappe’s side return to Ligue 1 action – where they are already champions – on Sunday when they host Toulouse. After facing Nice and Metz later this month, they take on Lyon in the French Cup final on May 25 as Mbappe looks to go out with a bang.
