Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest threats for Barcelona in the PSG game were their wingers. La Blaugrana already knows Ousmane Dembele pretty well from his time at the Catalan club. However, if there was one name to be highlighted as the biggest challenge to Barcelona, that name was Kylian Mbappe.
In the build-up to their exciting Champions League clash, both PSG and Barcelona had their weapons assessed. For many, the deciding factor of this game would have been Mbappe himself. The only way that Barcelona would lose or win this game would have been reflective of how they dealt with PSG’s ace.
It now seems safe to say that the work done by the Barcelona defenders proved to be very fruitful. As highlighted by SPORT, much of the praise for the victory itself must go to the Barcelona defenders. However, one man who deserves additional praise for the work that he did was none other than Jules Kounde.
More often than not, Xavi Hernandez has shown to trust Ronald Araujo to deal with the star wingers of any opponent. Whether it be AC Milan’s Rafael Leao, or Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr, the Uruguayan is the typical bet of the Barcelona coach to contain them. This time around, however, he put his faith in Jules Kounde.
The French defender, a compatriot of Mbappe’s, knows his French teammate better than most others. Xavi counted on this experience and history of theirs to help Kounde keep Mbappe suppressed, and tasked the former Sevilla defender with keeping PSG’s ace at bay for this encounter.
That is exactly what the 25-year-old French defender ended up doing. Containing Mbappe to an extreme degree, the PSG ace looked clueless and isolated for much of the game. He was unable to impact or influence the match in the way that he would have wanted, and that was mainly due to the presence of Kounde along with the occasional help from Ronald Araujo and Pau Cubarsi.
In total, Mbappe ended up losing the ball on 13 different occasions in the game. Furthermore, he was even unable to have a single shot on target throughout the match itself. From the three attempts he made, none reached their desired targets and were either off-target or blocked.
The return leg at the Montjuic Stadium still awaits them, and stopping Mbappe there will be crucial as well. For now, however, Barcelona can smile at their hard-fought victory and Jules Kounde must be heralded for the surreal performance that he gave, something that he has turned into a normality of sorts in recent weeks.
