Curtain Falls Early: Mbappe's PSG Fairytale Ends in Disappointment

Kylian Mbappe's fantasy goodbye from Paris Saint-Germain will not come true after the team's shocking Champions League elimination at the hands of Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday prevented him from participating in his final match for the team in the Wembley final next month.

After seven years at PSG, the 2018 World Cup winner's contract ends at the conclusion of this season. Real Madrid is expected to be his next stop. He had planned to finish his career by taking the club owned by Qatar to their first-ever Champions League championship, and they were the favorites to defeat Dortmund in the second leg of the semi-final at the Parc des Princes.

However, they were unable to overcome a one-goal disadvantage from the first leg, as Dortmund won 2-0 overall thanks to a goal from Mats Hummels, the only goal of the game.

Four PSG players, including Mbappe, struck the post in the second half. Coach Luis Enrique lamented his team's "unlucky" performance, saying they had 31 shots on goal.

Moments later, Mbappe declared, "I don't really like to talk about bad luck."

"You score because you are good, not because you hit the post. I made every effort to assist. I have to be the one making the scores when I say we need to be more clinical. However, we must get back up because this is life."

It will be difficult for PSG to do that, considering how close they were to making it to the championship game four years after losing to Bayern Munich in Lisbon.

That will always be the closest Mbappe ever got to winning the European Cup with his own side, of which he has scored 255 goals in his career.

He has participated in Europe's top club tournament for 42 of those, although he was unable to add to that number over the two legs versus Dortmund.

"The end of his dream" was the headline in the sports daily L'Equipe, which awarded the France captain a two-out-of-10 grade for his performance.

Another catastrophe in Europe?

Being eliminated by the fifth-place squad in the Bundesliga seems disastrous for a team that has made the same amount of investments as PSG since the 2011 Qatari purchase.

It is the most recent in a string of heartbreaking losses in the Champions League knockout stages, which still stands to be led by their 6-1 loss to Barcelona in the 2017 last 16, despite Barcelona winning the first leg 4-0.

According to Vincent Duluc in L'Equipe,

• "PSG hit their heads against the glass ceiling on a night when the sky seemed to be the limit."
• "The truth is that this elimination is quite the collapse given the gigantic opportunity that was on offer."

Insufficient experience:

Their starting lineup, which had an average age of 24 years and 157 days, was the youngest for any side in a Champions League semi-final since Arsenal versus Manchester United in 2009, which suggests that their lack of experience at this level eventually proved to be a liability.

It will be up to Luis Enrique to hope that his young players' experience would benefit them the next season.

"Remember that there have been a lot of changes and that this is a fresh endeavor with a new coach. Captain Marquinhos told broadcaster Canal Plus, "There are a lot of positives and good things to take forward into next season."

Over the past three months, the coach has reportedly been benching or not starting Mbappe in domestic league matches in order to prepare for the next campaign.

This campaign, that tactic has not ultimately allowed PSG to win the one trophy that they truly want, and Mbappe, who is now 25 years old, will be hoping that after leaving Paris, he will finally hold the trophy in his hands.