Mbappe channels his inner Lukaku in CRAZY Real Madrid stat

Kylian Mbappe‘s difficult start to his Real Madrid career has his a new low, as this crazy stat illustrates.

As Real Madrid lost 1-3 at home to AC Milan in the Champions League 2024/25 league phase, Kylian Mbappe didn’t impact the stat sheet at all.

Worse, as reported by Julien Laurens on Match of the Day, between the 13th and 43rd minute of the loss to Milan, Kylian Mbappe didn’t touch the ball at all. 0 touches!

Not one single touch for Mbappe in an astonishing 30 minutes of football as Madrid’s marquee signing floated around the game without even pretending to be a factor.

Mbappe ended the night with 43 touches so it’s not like Madrid were deliberately avoiding him, but for most of the first-half they just have no idea how to even find their star man and it summed up so much of what is wrong with that team.

READ MORE:Amad to shine, Bruno to struggle – Ranking how Man Utd’s stars will fit into Amorim’s plans

Laurens reports that Mbappe told AC Milan Sporting Director Zlatan Ibrahimovic that he was happy at Madrid, but it’s hard to imagine a serial winner like Mbappe be satisfied with such an incredibly poor showing in such a big game, especially right after the embarrassment he and Madrid suffered in El Clásico at the hands of Barcelona.

Lukaku-esque Mbappe

Kylian Mbappe was caught offside 8 times in his previous game against Barcelona, also missing two 1-v-1 chances as Real Madrid lost 0-4 at home to their rivals in El Clásico.

That display seemed to condition his performance against AC Milan, where he seemed almost hesitant to make runs in behind lest he be flagged offside.

And Mbappe’s display against Milan, and particularly his touchless 30 minute run, called to mind Romelu Lukaku‘s infamous display against Crystal Palace in February 2022.

That afternoon at Selhurst Park, Chelsea did manage to win 0-1 thanks to a late winner from Hakim Ziyech, but Romelu Lukaku, despite playing the full 90 minutes and 2 minutes stoppage time as well, only ended the match with 7 touches of the ball.

7 – Romelu Lukaku had just seven touches against Crystal Palace, the fewest in a single Premier League game for a player with 90+ minutes played since this data is available in full for the competition (2003-04). One of those touches was from kick-off in the first half. Quiet.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 19, 2022

That is the fewest touches in a single Premier League game stretching back to when Opta began keeping those records in 2003/04, and it was this historically bad performance that Mbappe was channeling in that first half.