but where was Mauro Icardi?

The bluff was difficult to hold after seeing Kylian Mbappé disembark at Le Bourget airport with a clear limp on Monday. Unsurprisingly, the French striker sat on the sidelines and the scenario of the meeting was in charge of preventing his coach from bringing him in and risking losing him for the end of the season. Instead, Mauricio Pochettino chose Mauro Icardi and explained his choice in this way. “Icardi is a striker with the experience of those games. He brings different things to our team. “ In the end, the Argentine coach is wrong all the way.

Firstly because the experience of these very high level meetings, Icardi does not really have it. He played his first Champions League campaign in 2018-2019 with Inter Milan. As for the accession to the last four, he experienced it with PSG last season and his contribution was limited to 78 minutes of play against Atalanta Bergamo. No more the slightest minute spent on the field for the rest of the competition.

Dramatic statistics

Then, it will not even be necessary to review the match to realize the total lack of impact of Icardi on the meeting. The statistics speak for themselves: 16 balls touched in 62 minutes of presence, 9 attempted passes (8 successful, including 4 for Paredes), 5 passes received, 0 shooting, 0 foul committed, 0 foul suffered. A ghost. So, of course, nobody expected from Icardi a match worthy of Kylian Mbappé, but all the same, the abyss is gigantic.

Rated 2.5 by our editorial staff, 2 by that of The team and 2 by that of Parisian, Mauro Icardi has given no guarantees for the future as to his ability to raise his level of play when necessary. He had however known how to be up to it as in the round of 16 first leg in Barcelona. Transparent and completely useless against Manchester City, Icardi has shifted in the minds of some in the recruitment flop category, while it cost PSG € 50 million. Still, next year, depending on the choice of Kylian Mbappé, he could well be number 1 in the hierarchy for this position.