The situation
The million dollar question that the English press has been asking in recent days is whether there really is an antidote to stop Kylian Mbappé. The PSG star is the current top scorer in the World Cup, with five goals, and his splendid form puts the continuity of the English team in Qatar in check. The Three Lions, for their part, cling to a player, Kyle Walker, who is one of the few World Cup defenders capable of beating one of the fastest players in the world in a sprint. If we analyze the speed of the City player in the World Cup, his statistics are quite close to those of Mbappé. In the two games he has played, against Wales on matchday 3 of the group stage and against Senegal in the round of 16, the full-back, who acts practically as a centre-back, the result of his reconversion with Guardiola, reached a speed of 34 kilometers tip. They were 34.4 in the round of 16 and 32.1 in the last day of the first phase. If we compare them with those of Mbappé, there are hardly any great differences. Bondy’s talent, unstoppable in the change of pace, has had spectacular numbers regarding his speed From him. Against Australia, in the world champion’s debut, she reached 34.7 kilometers per hour, reaching her record on matchday 2, against Denmark, when her sprint reached a speed of 35.7. Against Poland, in the round of 16, in a match in which he was the star with a brace, the PSG striker managed to reach 35 kilometres. England entrusts itself to Walker to contain the attacks of Kylian Mbappé. Polish right-back Matty Cash acknowledged after losing to France that “if there’s a player who can stop him, it’s Kyle.” Gary Neville also stated on English television that he “can’t think of another full-back in the world except Kyle Walker” who could contain the French striker’s gigantic potential. There are several antecedents, in fact, between the two, with different results. Last season, PSG beat Manchester City 2-0 in the Champions League group stage and then Guardiola’s men won 2-1 at the Etihad.
The details
In both games, Mbappé suffered against Walker, who emerged as a sprinter in the open field capable of withstanding a long-distance run from Bondy . A year earlier, in 2021, City eliminated the Parisians from the European Cup in the semifinals. They won 1-2 in Paris and then came out victorious again in Manchester. In the first leg, since he did not play the return, Mbappé ran into a nightmare called Walker.