PETE JENSON: Real Madrid fans don't know whether to laugh or cry as Kylian Mbappe nets in PSG defeat

Real Madrid fans didn’t know whether to cry about how bad they had been against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night. Or laugh themselves silly about how brilliant their future looks with centre forward Kylian Mbappe.

Madrid are having a mini mid-season crisis. They have only scored one goal in their last four games. Their gala midfield of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro looks a little jaded, and their leading scorer and most important player Karim Benzema is being slowed down by injury at the worst possible time.

Add to that the fact that Casemiro – the only player in the squad with no natural replacement – is out of the second leg, and that another hard to replace player, Ferland Mendy is also out and the near future looks grim.

What lies ahead in the more distant future looks very special though. From the moment Mbappe turned Dani Carvajal inside out after a minute to the goal he scored with a minute left, he looked like the best player in the world.

Carlo Ancelotti pretty much called him that after the game. And while Ancelotti was speaking in his post-match press conference, Mbappe was giving interviews in perfect Spanish.

It’s clear he has made a concerted effort to learn the language – these were not the answers of a man who has just picked up a few words listening to Angel Di Maria in training.

The only time he stumbled was when he was asked if he had already made his mind up about what he will do at the end of the season.

He laughed nervously at the question; much as Mauricio Pochettino had done in his interview with Spanish television when it was put to him that the big future Mbappe has ahead of him will take place away from the Parc des Princes.

Some Madrid fans are so excited about his arrival they’ll take him destroying them at the Bernabeu in two weeks as collateral damage to the greater long-term plan.

The second leg still matters thanks in large part to Thibaut Courtois. Without two brilliant saves, one in each half from Mbappe, the game would have been almost over as a contest.

He has now saved the last three penalties he has faced (Guedes of Valencia, Raul Garcia of Athletic Bilbao and Messi). After he stopped that spot-kick he had also saved 22 of the last 23 shots he had faced in the Champions League.

He is the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment and his display was the only consolation for Ancelotti.

There was a moment midway through the firs half when his son and assistant coach Davide turned to the Real Madrid manager and shrugged as if to say: this isn’t what we had planned.

Pochettino team had cut off the supply line to Benzema and Vinicius and over-ran Madrid’s midfield. That made it a battle between Madrid’s defence and PSG’s explosive forward line – a battle the home side won.

Madrid will try not make the same mistakes at the start of March but it’s difficult to see what else Ancelotti can do. It seems unlikely he will risk Marcelo for the suspended Mendy but moving Alaba out of the centre of defence to cover, could repair one hole but make another.

Lucas Vazquez and Fede Valverde could feature because they at least have the energy levels to match the Parisians and Benzema will be closer to full fitness.

But it is still a big ask for Madrid to turn this around. The optimists were reminding everyone that the game is at the Bernabeu and that home advantage ought to count. The realists were pointing out that, currently under reconstruction the old stadium has a reduced capacity with supporters much further back from the pitch.

It will be harder to intimidate the visitors. And can old hands Neymar and Messi, and the brilliant Mbappe really be intimidated anyway? Probably not.