After Paris Saint-Germain's late draw with lowly Clermont Foot on Saturday, Kylian Mbappe offered a rather ominous assessment of his side's upcoming Champions League fixture with Barcelona this Wednesday. "I'm not going to hide," he told Telefoot. "I'm sure we are going to give it our all."
Those comments come as a stark contrast from the rather disgruntled player who has slumped around Parc des Princes of late. Since informing PSG that he intends to leave the club at the end of the season, Mbappe has been in and out of Luis Enrique's line-up, and has spoken in vague platitudes about his intention to give his all for the club, insisting that he remains very much focused on the task at hand.
His comments over the weekend, then, served as a battle cry of sorts for an opponent who are about to become a big part of Mbappe's life. The France captain is going to become very familiar with Barcelona over the next decade, such is the rivalry between his (likely) future club, Real Madrid, and the team he will face over two legs in the space of a week, starting in Paris on Wednesday.
In this tie, he has the chance to launch a pre-emptive strike on the Blaugrana, as Los Blancos' next superstar is given an opportunity to deliver a hefty blow to his soon-to-be arch rivals before he even dons Madrid white for the first time.