Fans spotted a bizarre detail in Kylian Mbappe’s most recent Instagram post following Real Madrid’s 3-2 win over Borussia Dortmund in the Club World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.
Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid overcame a spirited Dortmund side at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Gonzalo Garcia opened the scoring ten minutes in with his fourth goal of the Club World Cup, before Fran Garcia doubled Los Blancos’ lead by latching onto a Trent Alexander-Arnold cutback on 20 minutes.
But the Bundesliga side fought back, and scored on 92 minutes through Maximilian Beier, before substitute Mbappe netted a stunning volley to make it 3-1. Serhou Guirassy scored a penalty on 98 minutes to make it 3-2.
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Mbappe’s goal was his first of the tournament, having missed the group stage with gastroenteritis.
When speaking about Mbappe in his post-match press conference, Alonso said: “He's better, although he's not 100% yet. Now we have three days to continue progressing and getting a feel for the semi-finals.”
And despite the Frenchman returning to the goals column in style, it was what he posted after the match that caught the attention of some eagle-eyed supporters.
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Mbappe posted several photographs of himself in action with the caption: "Good way to show that I feel better now… Another important win for the team in an amazing atmosphere here in NYC.
"See you in semifinals. ¡HalaMadrid!"
But some fans think the snap was ‘badly photoshopped’ as some supporters in the stands appeared disfigured.
One said: “I believe that whoever grabbed the photo used AI to enhance the image before posting it. Don't see why they would go through the effort to use Photoshop for this sort of thing (and especially when it's that bad).”
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Another added: “This is just a mirage due to the extreme heat in the US. Y’all are overthinking this. Not photoshopped at all, they just managed to capture the illusion.”
While a third claimed: “Looking at the goal video again, it looks like there are actually fans there, so it's probably just some picture enhancement that messed up as opposed to them trying to add fans in."
Los Blancos return to action on Wednesday when they face Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals in New Jersey.
Topics: Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid, Football
Luke Davies