MADRID
\nReal Madrid desperately need superstar Kylian Mbappe at his magical best on Wednesday in a pivotal Champions League clash against Manchester City and unstoppable striker Erling Haaland.
\nAfter just two victories in seven matches, fractures have emerged in Xabi Alonso\u2019s Madrid project, with some Spanish media reporting a defeat against City could lead to a premature dismissal.
\nSo often this season Madrid have underwhelmed but been rescued by Mbappe\u2019s lethal brilliance, scoring 25 goals in 21 games to lead the scoring charts both in Spain and in the Champions League.
\nPep Guardiola\u2019s City are spearheaded by Norwegian international Haaland, who has 20 goals in 20 games across all competitions and, along with Bayern Munich\u2019s Harry Kane, is Mbappe\u2019s only rival as the standout star of the current season.
\nThe pair have also been drawn against each other at next summer\u2019s World Cup in the United States, with Mbappe\u2019s France to face Haaland\u2019s Norway on June 26 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
\nThe first chapter of that battle will be played out at the Bernabeu, where former Barcelona coach Guardiola would relish being able to add to Madrid\u2019s misery.
\nThis season City are structured around Haaland, playing to the forward\u2019s strengths and aiming for the majority of their moves to end with the ball at his feet in front of goal.
\nWhat structure Alonso tried to impart at Madrid has crumbled away amid a tussle for power with the players, although Mbappe\u2019s quality has made him their key figure.
\n\u201cThe team is a flat, uninspired group clustered around Mbappe, whose goals merely mask the crisis,\u201d wrote Spanish newspaper AS on Sunday after a 2-0 home defeat by Celta Vigo.
\n\u201cIf he takes a day off, there\u2019s no alternative.\u201d
\nMbappe has been Madrid\u2019s one constant this season, thriving when the team was doing well during a run of 13 wins from 14 matches, but also in recent weeks amid their struggles.
\nAfter a slow start to life in Spain following his move from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2024, Mbappe found his top gear in the second half of last season.
\nIn 2025 he has scored 55 goals for his club, four short of the 2013 record of 59 set by Cristiano Ronaldo, his childhood idol and Real Madrid\u2019s all-time top goalscorer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADRID Real Madrid desperately need superstar Kylian Mbappe at his magical best on Wednesday in a pivotal Champions League clash against Manchester City and unstoppable striker Erling Haaland. After just two victories in seven matches, fractures have emerged in Xabi Alonso\u2019s Madrid project, with some Spanish media reporting a defeat against City could lead to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":90779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90783,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90769\/revisions\/90783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}