Mbappe defended Donnarumma from Milan fans: "It was too much"

In the summer of 2021, Gianluigi Donnarumma, who had spent his entire career at Milan, declined to renew in order to sign as a free agent with PSG. The fans at the San Siro were not particularly pleased and, since then, a large section of the fans have accused him of being a mercenary and of being driven by money, which has been hailed at the Parc des Princes. On Tuesday, they met him again in the Champions League group stage and threw banknotes with his face on them onto the pitch.

Kylian Mbappe, his team-mate and the main figure in Luis Enrique's side, defended him in his post-match statement to 'Sportitalia': "There was a lot of noise. They gave Gianluigi Donnarumma a pretty tough reception. I think it was too much. In the end, it's football... The fans do what they want. We can't tell them what to do. We try to protect 'Gigio' as much as possible." He then went on to analyse his side's defeat.

"The problem is us. When we don't win, it's always us. We don't look for the problem elsewhere. We didn't manage to win and Milan took advantage of it. Congratulations to them. Did we expect a different team than in the first leg? No, we didn't expect anything. We just wanted to come here and win. It wasn't like that. We wanted to keep this lead in the group; now, we are second. We have a home game against Newcastle, we have to win and then we'll see what happens," he said.

This was the second time Gianluigi Donnarumma has faced Milan in his career. The first came in this same group stage, in the first leg, when PSG hosted the Italians in the French capital. With a contract until 2026, the goalkeeper has a good chance of visiting the San Siro again in the medium-term future if the Parisians continue to qualify for the Champions League and his former side do the same in the Serie A.