Soccer Football - Champions League - Liverpool v Real Madrid - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - November 27, 2024 Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe looks dejected after the match Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - Striker Kylian Mbappe had another subdued and disappointing performance for Real Madrid on Wednesday, failing to seriously trouble Liverpool's defence and missing a penalty in their 2-0 Champions League defeat at Anfield.
The Frenchman has had a challenging start to life at Real after joining from Paris St Germain in June, with just one goal in five Champions League games for the Spanish club.
The World Cup winning forward has scored one goal in his last six games in all competitions but manager Carlo Ancelotti defended him after Wednesday's match as an "extraordinary" player who just needed support and patience to thrive in Spain.
"It’s a difficult moment for him, we’ve got to support him and give him our love, he’ll soon be fine," Ancelotti said.
"It could be a lack of confidence maybe. Sometimes you have moments when things aren’t quite working out for you. But you get through these moments. People miss penalties, it happens a lot. You can’t put too much grief on him for that.
"He works hard, he’s got to keep working hard and fighting. You get through these moments. Things just aren’t running for him at the moment. We’ve got be patient. He’s an extraordinary player."
Ancelotti said Liverpool deserved to win the game.
"I think that to be totally honest with you, it was a fair result," he said. "They have a really good dynamic at the moment, they are switched on, they play with a high intensity."
Even though Real are 24th in the 36-team league, and in danger of missing out on the knockout phase, he was confident their form would pick up sufficiently.
"I think this game today wasn’t a decisive game," he said. "We’ll be there, we’ll be competing in the knockout phase, like in previous years."
Real midfielder Jude Bellingham echoed his boss' remarks that Liverpool outplayed them.
"They were more up for it than us which is very disappointing. It is a bad result against the best-performing team in Europe," he said.
"We are disappointed at how we have performed and it is important that we win the next three games and give ourselves a chance to go through."
Bellingham was also supportive of Mbappe.
"He is a wonderful player but the pressure on him because of how good he is is huge. The penalty is not why we lost the game. They performed better than us. I know that he will produce many more moments that will be huge for this club," he said.
(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Toby Davis)
