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Football

29th Jun 2021

Mbappé speaks on penalty miss and France exit

Danny Jones

The young starlet missed the fifth and final penalty. Heartbreaking stuff for the young lad

Kylian Mbappé has responded after his miss in the penalty shoot-out against Switzerland which saw France drop out of Euro 2020. The French led the game 3-1 with just 15 minutes to go but ultimately allow the Swiss back into the game.

In what was arguably the game of the tournament so far, the score could not be decided in normal extra time and after going to penalties, Mbappé stepped up to take the fifth and final penalty. While he and his team may have been hoping for it to be a hero moment – the 22-year-old having struggled to get firing in the competition – it was not to be.

Clearly gutted by the result and to be the one to miss the crucial penalty, the PSG forward issued a statement on social media, telling fans how he is “sorry for this penalty”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQrpin5lbT8/

Translated into English, here is his sorrowful statement:

“Very difficult to turn the page. The sadness is immense after this elimination, we were not able to achieve our objective. I am sorry for this penalty. I wanted to help the team but I failed. It will be hard to sleep but sadly these are the risks of this sport that I love so much.

I know that you the fans are disappointed, but I would still like to thank you for your support and for having always believed in us. The most important thing will be to get up even stronger for the challenges to come. Congratulations and good luck to Switzerland.”

You can’t help but feel for him; touted as one of the brightest talents to carry the torch on from the likes of Ronaldo and Messi, we know for a fact that this was not the player we know and love.

The truth is, while France may have finally started to click in the last two games, he never got going and, more importantly, anyone can miss a penalty. We have no doubt, come the start of next season, we’ll all be marvelling at what a generational talent he truly is.

Chin up, lad.