After a gradual begin to his Real Madrid profession, Kylian Mbappé has already surpassed one of many membership greats.
Mbappé scored twice in Madrid’s 2-1 comeback win over Villarreal on Saturday (March 15, 2025) to take his tally to 31 goals in all competitions this season — yet one more than Brazil striker Ronaldo managed in his first marketing campaign on the membership. It additionally helped Madrid open up a three-point lead atop the Spanish league over Barcelona, which has performed two video games much less.
Long gone are the scoring troubles Mbappé endured in his first months at Madrid.
Having surpassed Ronaldo’s tally from 2002-03, the previous Paris Saint-Germain participant is now closing in on the 33 goals that Cristiano Ronaldo scored in his first season with Madrid in 2009-10.
“They are legends who marked eras with the club,” Mbappé mentioned in regards to the two Ronaldos. “If I score more goals than Ronaldo and Cristiano it doesn’t mean that I am better, just that my first season is better. Scoring goals is important, but it is even more so if we win La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.”
His double at fifth-placed Villarreal took Mbappe’s La Liga tally to 20 goals, just one fewer than Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski within the home competitors.
Villarreal made it a pulsating sport because it attacked in waves with Alex Baena and Nicolas Pepe serving to create a collection of probabilities. Thibaut Courtois made three good stops for Madrid to deny Pepe, Ayoze Pérez, and Pape Gueye within the first half.
But Villarreal paid on the different finish the place Mbappé ruthlessly exploited the holes within the Yellow Submarine’s protection.
“Mbappé didn’t participate much, but he was lethal,” Villarreal coach Marcelino Toral mentioned.
A one-handed save by Courtois to deny Ayoze led to a nook kick that resulted in Villarreal’s eight-minute opener. Juan Foyth swept dwelling a ball that fell to him contained in the six-yard field after it had ricocheted off gamers in a packed space.
Mbappé leveled within the seventeenth after he teed up teammate Brahim Díaz for a shot that was saved by goalkeeper Diego Conde, and the ball fell to the France striker to rifle dwelling.
Mbappé was on the scoreboard once more within the twenty third when Villarreal’s protection misplaced monitor of him on the high of the realm. He acquired a go from Lucas Vázquez and had on a regular basis he wanted to place a shot into the best nook.
Halftime substitute Thierno Barry and Foyth each squandered scoring alternatives early within the second half earlier than Madrid tightened its protection to see out the sport.
Carlo Ancelotti left Vinícius Júnior and Antonio Rudiger on the bench till the ultimate half hour – with Luka Modric happening shortly after – because the Madrid coach rotated his lineup three days after its grueling Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid that went to a penalty shootout.
“This was an important and difficult game against one of the best teams in the league,” Mbappé mentioned. “After the game against Atletico and its added time it was very tough today but we knew we had to win. We showed character and that we wanted this win.”
Barcelona is three factors behind Madrid forward of its go to to third-placed Atletico Madrid, which is 4 factors again, on Sunday. It additionally has a postponed sport versus Osasuna nonetheless to be performed.
Ancelotti mentioned that Real Madrid was upset that the sport in Villarreal wasn’t pushed again because it had requested to give its gamers extra relaxation. As a consequence the membership mentioned it gained’t agree to play one other sport with out 72 hours of relaxation between matches.
Madrid’s sport at Villarreal sport kicked off at 6:30 p.m. native time (1730 GMT) on Saturday. Madrid had performed a Champions League sport towards Atletico Madrid on Wednesday that began at 9:00 p.m. and lasted 120 minutes plus a penalty shootout.
“This is the last time we will play within 72 hours,” Ancelotti mentioned.
Vedat Muriqi made up for an personal objective and a missed penalty kick by changing a stoppage-time penalty to full Mallorca’s 2-1 comeback win over Espanyol.
Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García delivered one other high efficiency by saving two penalties.
García stopped Muriqi’s second-half penalty and appeared to have secured a degree for the guests when he additionally denied Abdon Prats in harm time, however the referee ordered the penalty to be retaken after an Espanyol participant had entered the realm forward of time.
Muriqi, whose early personal objective was canceled out by teammate Takuma Asano, stepped again up to the spot and redeemed himself by lastly beating García along with his workforce’s third try from the spot.
Also, former Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso transformed a late penalty to give Celta Vigo a 1-0 win at last-place Valladolid, whereas Cristhian Stuani scored to salvage Girona a 1-1 draw at dwelling with Valencia.
Published – March 16, 2025 04:31 am IST
