But I think it was quite likel that Liverpool would keep a clean sheet. Nobody could know that Mbappe would ail to scoer the penalty of course, but I expected that out of the game it would be tough to overcome Liverpool's defense.
Liverpool's defense is still very solid at the moment so that a team that does not have a very sharp striker will clearly have difficulty breaking through it and that has been felt by Real Madrid this season when facing Liverpool. And for the next match I think Girona will also be the same even though each team has a different story in terms of this, but when you look at Liverpool's current level of strength and defense, it is clear that Girona will also find it difficult to break through Liverpool's goal in the Champions League.
I think one of the biggest problems now is that Mbappe is the one striker that the opponents can focus on. He is the most dangerous weapon that Real Madrid has and when Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo are injured, it makes it quite predictable for the opponents what Real Madrid is about to do. It is sometimes the same for Manchester City when the opponents focus on taking Haaland out of the game. It works out quite often since they know that Haaland is the center of attention for their attacking game.
But now with 2 top stars being out of the game due to injuries, the opponents can't of course neglect the other substitute strikers, but the game will still be centered around Mbappe. They can get him covered man to man and in space. That means he can barely use his speed to create chances for himself and once he has got the ball, he is probably surrounded by at least two players towards the opponent's goal.
Usually with a player like Mbappe you want to play a system with 3 attackers, something like 4-3-3. This makes it very hard for the opponent to guess the next move. Like Barcelona played with Messi, Suarez + one more striker. That's almost impossible to defend for an entire game when you know that all 3 of them have the ability to strike from literally anywhere and you have a player like Suarez who can perfectly cover the center. Mbappe prefers to speed up on the wing and then find his way to the center during the dribbling.