Chelsea boss Tuchel reveals what hattrick hero against Barcelona must do to take over from Messi and Ronaldo
- Chelsea boss Tuchel says Kylian Mbappe has the quality to overthrow both Messi and Ronaldo
- The Frenchman orchestrated Barcelona's fall at Camp Nou in the first leg of their UCL meeting
- The former PSG manager insisted that the forward must step up his numbers to become the world's best
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Paris Saint Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe will overthrow Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the world stage according to Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.
The 22-year-old made a huge impact when PSG visited Camp Nou earlier this month - scoring an audacious hattrick against Barcelona in their Champions League rounds of 16 first-leg clash.
With the triumph in Spain, the French club is one leg into the quarterfinal of the competition and they could be on their way to the final for the second consecutive season having lost to Bayern Munich last term.
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The duo of Messi and Ronaldo share 11 Ballon d'Or awards between them and Mbappe will have to give more both on and off the pitch before he could finally lay his hands on the prize.
Source: Getty Images
Stats also show that the 2018 World Cup winner is the 10th player ever to score a treble away against Barcelona - while he is the second to do so in the UCL after Andriy Shevchenko in 1997.
Marca reports that Mbappe's display in his side's 4-1 win was considered another breakout moment on the world stage, although Messi and Ronaldo are not going away.
Ronaldo has scored 25 goals and three assists in 28 games while Mbappe has 21 goals and nine assists to his name after 30 games. Messi has equally recorded 21 goals and eight assists in 30 appearances for the Catalans.
However, Tuchel insists that the PSG forward improve his numbers if he must establish himself as the world's best. Chelsea boss Tuchel told BT Sport.
"They will never step aside, never of free will. They will never step aside. If he wants to be there, he has to push them aside. This is clear: on that level, nobody will step aside for him.
"Scoring a hat-trick at Nou Camp is a message and is what he demands of himself. It is his potential, it is what he has in him. He is still young, he is still hungry, he is a shark in his mentality.
"He wants to grab everything that he can have. This is the mentality that you need, and I mean it in the most positive way because he's a nice guy in private and in person.
"He's a nice guy, super intelligent, super funny, but once he's on the pitch, he's a shark. This is what the big guys are. If there is one drop of blood in the water, they arrive.
"This is Kylian, and if he wants to enter on the level from the guys that you mentioned [Messi and Ronaldo] - because they are there for years and years and years - I don't think they are ready to step aside just because he arrives. He has to take it. I think he will do everything to do it."
Legit.ng earlier reported that Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has expressed his admiration for the duo of Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe following their impressive games in the Champions League.
Mbappe was in great form for PSG as the Frenchman scored three goals for the French champions in their perfect win over Spanish giants Barcelona.
Haaland on the other hand inspired Borussia Dortmund with two goals in their comeback win over Sevilla.
Oluwatomiwa is a sports editor with Legit.ng. He has over eight years of field and office experience in the media industry. He graduated from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in 2014 with HND in Mass Communication. Connect with him on Twitter @TomiwaBabalola.
Source: Legit.ng
