It was one of the most anticipated games of recent times and it didn’t disappoint. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo once again faced each other on a soccer field and although it was only a friendly match, both scored goals to thank the love of the people present at the King Fahd International Stadium in Saudi Arabia.
Paris Saint Germain faced the Riyadh All-Stars XI, which featured a combination of players from Al Hilal and Al Nassr, the new “CR7” team, after signing for $200m and being managed by Marcelo Gallardo. In the end, the Argentine celebrated after his team won 4-5.
This duel allowed us to evoke the Messi-Cristiano rivalry that lasted for several years in Spain when both players served at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.
The audience ovation, which saw ‘Lio’ and ‘CR7’ in action, very well accompanied by Kylian Mbappé, was not long in coming. This game will no doubt go down in history for the Peruvians as well, as André Carrillo sat on the bench and took the field to replace no more and no less than the Portuguese striker.
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The scoring started at 3′. After a great assist from Neymar, Messi went one on one with the keeper, beating him with a cross and drag shot for the Parisians’ first hugs. After 10 minutes, Paris Saint-Germain handed the lead to the hosts.
The alarm clock rang in the 32nd minute. Cristiano Ronaldo went in for a cross from a free kick and Navas ended up hitting ‘CR7”s head with his arm which ended up cutting his mouth. As a result of the contact, the match referee did not hesitate to issue a penalty. ‘CR7’ was in front of the ball and gave the Costa Rican an unassailable shot to level the scores at 1-1.
Marquinhos gave the French the advantage again and Neymar had a chance to close the gap for a line-up suffering from Juan Bernat being kicked out, but the ’10’ missed his shot. Before the break, ‘CR7’ intervened again to finalize his double.
Ramos, Mbappé and Hugo Ekitiké also scored for PSG, while Hyun Soo Jang and Anderson Talisca scored for the Arab team led by Marcelo Gallardo.