Five days after ripping Barcelona to shreds on their hallowed Camp Nou turf, Kylian Mbappe endured one of the quietest nights of a trophy-laden career as his old employers triumphed in the French capital.
Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet may still be waking up in cold sweats, their dreams haunted by Paris Saint-Germain’s jet-heeled superstar, but Axel Disasi can sleep soundly in his bed this week.
Because, alongside Guillermo Maripan and Benoit Badiashile, Monaco’s 22-year-old centre-back succeeded where Barcelona spectacularly failed and kept Mbappe off the scoresheet.
A 2-0 triumph at the Parc des Princes – a result which thrusts Niko Kovac’s side slap bang into the middle of an intriguing title race – was as much down to a stirring defensive effort as it was their clinical finishing at the other end.
“We had to muzzle Kylian Mbappe – Disasi played a great match,” former Bayern Munich boss Kovac said at full-time.
A £10 million summer signing from Reims, Disasi has been an exceptional addition to a Monaco side who, for the first time since Mbappe’s 2017 departure, look like genuine challengers for the Ligue 1 crown.
After a weekend in which Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur saw their defensive deficiencies ruthlessly exposed once again, Disasi’s magnificent man-marking job on arguably the plant’s most fearsome forward offers a glimpse into what the inconsistent London giants are missing.
According to RMC, both Arsenal and Spurs tried to sign Disasi before Paul Mitchell (a former Tottenham sporting director no less) lured the latest in a long line of top-class French defenders to the Principality.
In this Paris-born youngster, Mbappe finally met his match.
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