Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland set the European continent ablaze this week with their performances in the Champions League.
The Paris Saint-Germain striker spearheaded a stone-cold destruction of Barcelona right in Lionel Messi’s back garden, while Haaland almost single-handedly took on the task of dragging his Borussia Dortmund team past a very impressive Sevilla side.
We all know how each wonderkid did in isolation, but which of the two world stars actually performed better in this week’s Champions League clashes?
Which player had a better week in the Champions League?
In terms of fundamental stats that helped their sides win the game, Mbappe and Haaland are almost neck and neck, with the French striker clocking three assists and his Norwegian counterpart picking up two goals and an assist.
However, the underlying stats suggest that Mbappe had far more fun in front of goal. Alongside his three goals, the French international also clocked six shots and four on target, with 10 touches in the Barcelona box.
Haaland, in contrast, was only afforded three shots towards the Sevilla goal. The Dortmund striker managed to get each one on target - unlike Mbappe - but only had four touches of the ball in the opposing box. Although PSG were playing Barcelona, they seemed to find it much easier to find goal scoring chances for their young striker.
This certainly seemed to play out in the other underlying stats. For example, Mbappe enjoyed 64 touches of the ball to Haaland’s 40, with 31 passes and 17 into the final third compared to Haaland’s 23 and 10.
Although that meant the French striker lost the ball eight more times than Haaland over the course of his game, it also meant he made nine dribbles to Haaland’s one as well as three crosses and one big chance created. Haaland didn’t manage any crosses or big chances.
Ultimately, it seems as though Mbappe enjoyed far more time on the ball and as a result was able to offer more in attack for PSG than Haaland was able to do for a Dortmund side that were perhaps up against an opponent that seemed to offer more of a threat.
This, in the end, meant that Mbappe picked up a FootballCritic score of 10 while Haaland lagged slightly behind him with a score of 9.3.
