Kylian Mbappé says 'team victory' against Barcelona sends 'good message' about Real Madrid

MADRID (AP) — Kylian Mbappé celebrated the “team victory” that brought Real Madrid back into the title race in the Spanish league, saying it sent a “good message.”

Mbappé scored twice in Sunday's clasico, including his 100th goal with Madrid, to lead the team to a 2-1 win over Barcelona . The result left Madrid within three points of the Catalan club.

“In the end, winning and still being in the title race is very important for us,” Mbappé told Real Madrid TV. “But we have to keep going. We know it’s a big game, but it’s worth three points, and we need a lot of points to win the league.

“Today sends a good message but we can’t think that the season is over, because nothing has been decided.”

Madrid remains one point behind second-place Atletico Madrid. It has won five straight games across all competitions since the international break.

“It’s a team victory. The credit goes to the team and the group, because we knew we had to play like men, but also as a team,” Mbappé said. “We prepared well in our recent games because we won and played well. We came into this with the right mentality, and today we gave everything we had.”

A win for Barcelona would've given the Catalan club a nine-point gap to Madrid, and allowed it to become the first team to win its opening 10 La Liga matches. It had matched Real Madrid’s nine victories from nine games in 1968-69.

Mbappé ended that sequence with his 87th-minute winner, his 100th goal in 116 appearances with Madrid.

“If we want to have any hopes of achieving things this year, we have to do it as a group and as a team, because the quality is here,” Mbappé said. “When you look at the players here, anyone who says there’s no quality is a liar. But we have to do everything as a team and as a group, because that’s how we’re going to achieve what we want to achieve.

“Everyone knows I like scoring goals and helping the team that way,” he added. “But I think today that’s just a detail. This victory will give the group a lot of confidence, and there will be many more goals, so it’s not that important.”

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