He presented himself calmly to the press, after a very successful match. Happy to be able to contribute to the Blues qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, Kylian Mbappé spent the evening with “a lot of emotion” and was not “disconnected” from the warnings regarding the attention of 13 November 2015.
What feelings come up after these World Cup qualifiers?
KYLIAN MBAPPÉ. We’re happy, we did the job. We said this is the final for us, and we want to get it done this Thursday night. There was a bit of a tricky first half but it was a really fun night, we had a lot of fun. We know that we have to remain conscious, we have compassion for France.
How to explain these two faces in the first and second periods?
We are trapped. We knew it beforehand so we had no excuses, we were stuck so I think everyone in the stadium was snoring a bit because it hasn’t been the best half of the century. We weren’t in rhythm, we had a few scenes but it was too light for a team like us. We knew how to react in the second half and control the ball, set the pace, have gaps, movement and goals. To score four goals in the second half, I think that’s still a performance.
What do you think about your match?
Good, good, good. It’s not the greatest match of my career, but it’s a good match. I’m happy, I managed to be decisive, connected with my teammates. I think I reflect the team. The first half was a bit tougher, the second half was better and we came away with qualification.
Tell us about connecting with the fans at the end of the game…
We could see the fans having fun. What was cool was that the people in the stadium did not take the World Cup qualifiers lightly, even though that is commonplace in France. So, it’s always fun and we’ll go there to represent France as best as we can.
“I don’t understand this semi-final thing”
With today’s warning and tonight’s, how are you feeling on the pitch?
There’s a lot of emotion, communion. I made a few selections for the French team and unfortunately there were a lot of minutes of silence, I think it was one of the minutes of silence that was most respected by most of the crowd in the stadium. This shows how important this is for France. There was unity throughout the day, we saw all the celebrations there were, the communion. I don’t think we’re exempt from that. We want to show that this is the priority today, even if we say it and I said it yesterday on behalf of the French team: we will try to make people smile for 90 minutes but the events of the day are not us. They were all people who had lost loved ones, lost a father, a mother, a child, a brother, a sister, a loved one. And these are the people we think of, always with great emotion and solidarity because we have touched our country. We were all united when we attacked France.
You have reached the mark of 400 goals scored in your career. What does it represent?
20 years ago, I would have told you this was amazing. Now there is a player at 950 and another at 900, I have to give 400 so that at least someone pays attention to me a little (laughter). That’s great, this is a symbolic number. Of course this is special but we have to keep working and keep scoring as many goals as possible.
Seven months before the World Cup, what is the goal?
I don’t know if I’m the right person to answer. I don’t understand this semi-final thing. If the goal is the semi-finals, we qualify for the semi-finals and what do we do, can we qualify? The goal is to win. That’s everyone’s dream. We know it will be difficult, but we are prepared for it.
