Kylian Mbappe left the entire footballing world in amaze with his performance against Barcelona in Tuesday's round of 16 clash with Barcelona. The French sensation went head-to-head with Lionel Messi in the first leg of their highly-anticipated encounter, scoring a sensational hat-trick at the Camp Nou.
After the full-time whistle, the 22-year-old was lavished with praise, and rightfully so, after leading his team to a crucial away win. Even opposition player Antoine Griezmann spoke highly of the Frenchman after the game, hailing his countryman for silencing his critics with his Man of the Match display.
Despite being on the wrong side of the Mbappe show, the former Atletico man admitted to being happy for the PSG ace. Griezmann did not stop there, concluding that while Kylian is a future star, he will soon be discussed in the same light as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two of the greatest, if not the, players to have ever existed.
"I am happy for him," Griezmann told RMC Sport of his international team-mate with France. "He has been criticised a lot, but that is what happens when you are someone for a little while.
"As soon as he plays less well, we criticise him. It is quite easy. But I believe that PSG have a future star, one who will be on the level of Leo and Cristiano. He had a truly great match."
Antoine's interview was not all joyous as they endured a disasterclass at home. Koeman's men broke the deadlock, with Lionel Messi clinically dispatching a penalty after Frenkie De Jong was brought down in the box. Shortly afterwards, the hosts had a brilliant opportunity to go two-nil up but saw Dembele squander an excellent opportunity. From then on, PSG ran the show.
Pique and Co. found it difficult to stop Pochettino's attack, with Dest struggling to cope with Mbappe. His three-goal haul has left the Blaugrana on the brink of elimination but Griezmann is adamant they will head to Paris with a never-give-up attitude.
"We needed to have a perfect match. We didn't and they did. It's a big defeat," the Barcelona ace added.
"We were ready, we wanted to play a big game but they were better than us, there is nothing to say.
"Kylian was having a great night. After this, there is a return match. We'll have to go there to win and turn the situation around. We're not going to go there as tourists."
