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One of those goals that's all about the assist.

Come for Mbappe’s first La Liga goal, stay for Fede Valverde’s insane Guti-esque assist

Nestor Watach •

It was obviously only a matter of time before Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe opened his goalscoring account in La Liga.

We all had our fun with Oli McBurnie enjoying a brighter start to life in Spain than Los Blancos’ latest Galactico, but it would’ve ripped up over very understanding of football for that to continue much longer.

Mbappe has demonstrated his lethal goalscoring ability for almost a decade now, ever since he burst onto the scene as an electric teenager in Monaco’s 2016-17 title victory.

It doesn’t take Einstein to work out this equation. You stick that player into a squad of other world-class superstars, the reigning European champions no less, and the goals will surely come.

And so they have. But they didn’t arrive until midway through the second half against Real Betis, the pressure mounting every minute they didn’t break the deadlock.

Madrid came into the match against Real Betis seven points behind Barcelona, who had rounded off their perfect start under Hansi Flick with a statement-making 7-0 mauling of Real Valladolid the night before.

You can only imagine the response from the Spanish daily sports papers the next morning had they failed to close that gap, dropping points for the third time in four matches, Mbappe extending his goalscoring drought to four matches. He’d taken 17 shots in the first three and fallen short.

And for over an hour against Manuel Pellegrini’s Verdiblancos, it looked once again like they’d be left frustrated again. La Fabrica’s own Diego Llorente produced an assured display to keep Mbappe at bay.

The Frenchman had snatched at one presentable rebound but otherwise struggled to get a sniff.

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The pattern of the game dared us to wonder… could Madrid be in crisis? Might we be witnessing a new iteration of Florentino Perez’s original Galacticos project, which ultimately disappointed in terms of delivering silverware after proving too unbalanced.

Could Toni Kroos’ departure be this generation’s Makelele? Maybe having two Ballon d’Or chasers like Vinicius Junior and Mbappe can’t work?

…Hang on a second. There’s Rodrygo carrying the ball. An outrageous flick from Federico Valverde later and there’s Mbappe, showcasing that trademark burst of acceleration to burst into the space and slot home.

You weren’t really doubting them, were you?

“Brahim, Rodrygo and Valverde start the action, I don’t even know how to say what he does, I’m there, I feel that the ball is going to arrive and I score the goal,” Mbappe told reporters after the match (via Marca).

“I told Fede ‘Thank you for everything’, we are next to each other in the locker room.”

A matter of minutes after the first, Mbappe doubled the lead from the penalty spot. Vinicius fell in the box and gave his team-mate the opportunity to casually stroke it in.

The Brazilian had taken the last one, but appeared happy enough to share the riches this time around.

“I’m happy, people give me a lot of affection, even when I wasn’t scoring, three games is not enough for someone else but for me it’s a lot and the people at the club and the fans were with me, they give me the confidence to give everything for this club and this badge,” he added.

Now Mbappe’s scored two in four. One-in-two doesn’t sound so bad all of a sudden, does it?

When you’ve got a midfielder capable of a Guti-esque madness, and a player like Vini elsewhere in attack, the goalscoring opportunities are going to rain down on Mbappe.

Did you ever really doubt he’d take them?

By Nestor Watach

Kylian Mbappe Real Madrid