Kylian Mbappé did not shy away from taking responsibility for his missed penalty against Morocco, but he also offered some insight into the unusual sequence of events that led up to it.
“I shot my penalty poorly, but it was tricky: there was a mix-up. The referee tells me there’s a penalty. I get ready. Then he comes to tell me there might not be a penalty after all. I let myself get distracted. I wasn’t familiar with that scenario yet,” Mbappé said (as captured by 90Min.com’s Ilies Peters).
Whether
fans accept that explanation or not, it is hard to argue that the situation was routine. Penalty takers spend those few moments mentally preparing themselves for one of the most pressurized situations in football. Having that process interrupted by uncertainty over whether the kick would even take place is something few players ever experience.
To Mbappé’s credit, he did not try to hide behind the confusion. His first words were, “I shot my penalty poorly,” acknowledging that the execution ultimately fell on him. That kind of accountability is one of the reasons he continues to be viewed as one of the game’s elite leaders.
The good news for France is that the missed penalty did not come back to haunt them. Les Bleus still secured a 2-0 victory over Morocco and advanced to the World Cup semifinals, allowing Mbappé’s miss to become little more than a footnote in an otherwise successful evening.
Great players are remembered far more for how they respond than for the occasional mistake. Mbappé now has another opportunity to deliver on the biggest stage with a place in the World Cup final on the line.
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