Arsenal have put one foot into the Champions League semi-finals with their dominant win against Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium and Kylian Mbappe has now given his verdict.
Kylian Mbappe has sent a rallying call to his Real Madrid teammates in the face of their Champions League horror show vs Arsenal. The Spanish giants find themselves 3-0 down against the Gunners after a stunning quarter-final first leg at the Emirates.
Two brilliant free-kicks from England midfielder Declan Rice and a further strike from makeshift forward Mikel Merino have put Mikel Arteta’s side firmly in charge of the tie. And Mbappe has now spoken out with a simple message.
Taking to his Instagram story, the Frenchman shared an image of himself during the game with the caption: “Hay que creer hasta el final” which translates to “you have to believe until the end.”
Mbappe, 26, will certainly be aiming to have a big impact during the second-leg at the Bernabeu next week. The striker already has 32 goals to his name this season across what has been a standout debut campaign in Spain.
And he is not the only Madrid star refusing to admit defeat ahead of next week’s decisive second leg. England midfielder Jude Bellingham has also suggested that an unlikely comeback could be on the cards for his side despite a dismal performance in North London.
"We were nowhere near it," Bellingham told Amazon Prime. "That’s the fact and Arsenal were really good."
"I know two of their goals were free-kicks but they could have had way more. There is a second leg and that’s what we’re holding on to. We need something really special, something crazy really but one place where crazy things happen is our house."
"We’ve got 90 more minutes at home to pull something out of the bag. We’re still alive, we’ve got 90 mins of football and anything can happen at the Bernabeu."
Boss Carlo Ancelotti however is slightly more downbeat ahead of the second leg and admitted that a comeback will be extremely tricky. The Italian said: "The result means that Arsenal were much better than us."
"The game was a bit different. For 60 minutes the game was level, and then they shoot two fantastic free-kicks. The game it changes."
"The reaction, mentally we went down. We had a problem in the final 30 minutes of the game. Now it will be very difficult in the second leg. But we have to try."
Ahead of the second-leg in Spain, Real will be aiming to get back to winning ways this weekend. They take on Alaves on Sunday with the aim of reducing Barcelona’s four-point advantage at the top of La Liga. Meanwhile, Arsenal are also back in action this weekend as they host Brentford on Saturday evening.