The umpteenth battle between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has been decided in favor of the Argentinian. Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain won an exhibition match against the Riyadh All Stars XI, a team with players from Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr from the Saudi capital. Ronaldo was captain of that team and scored twice, but could not prevent the French from winning 5-4. Messi also put his name on the scoresheet.
The exhibition game, which was entirely intended to promote Saudi Arabia, was billed as the great battle between Ronaldo and Messi and the two indeed also kicked off at the King Fahd International Stadium, which was completely sold out. Christophe Galtier, coach of PSG, also had stars such as Neymar and Kylian Mbappé start. On the side of the combination team from Riyadh, well-known players such as Anderson Talisca and Luiz Gustavo participated in addition to Ronaldo.
The first half was mouth-watering. After just three minutes, Messi drew attention to his person by appreciating a great bounce from Neymar and sliding the ball past the outgoing goalkeeper into the net: 0-1. However, Ronaldo could not let that go. After half an hour, the referee pointed to the spot after a foul by Keylor Navas, PSG’s goalkeeper, on the Portuguese and that golden opportunity was converted into the equalizer. Shortly after the 1-1, the guests from France also ended up with ten men when Juan Bernat knocked down a broken player.
????@neymarjr xLeo Messi #PSGRiyadhSeasonTeam i #PSGQatarTour2023 pic.twitter.com/cvAQ2ChHyN
— Paris Saint Germain (@PSG_English) January 19, 2023
Nevertheless, PSG managed to take the lead again. Marquinhos tapped the 1-2 against the ropes on a pass from Mbappé and just before half-time it also seemed to be 1-3 when Neymar was allowed to moor for a penalty after a light foul was made on him. However, the Brazilian failed miserably and saw to his horror how Ronaldo did score on the other side of the field moments later. CR7 initially headed on the post, but used the rebound to make it 2-2 at halftime.
The second act also had a high entertainment value. After all, the ten of Paris continued to attack and quickly took the lead again through Sergio Ramos. The Spanish mandekker had crept forward and was there at the first post like the chickens to promote a cross from Mbappé to goal. However, the 3-2 was quickly undone by the All Stars from Riyadh, as Hyun-Soo Jang nodded the 3-3 against the ropes from a corner. Less than two minutes later it was already 4-3. Again PSG had to take a penalty kick and this time Mbappé successfully took care of it.
?? @SergioRamos pic.twitter.com/SLwqpUrush
— Paris Saint Germain (@PSG_English) January 19, 2023
After sixty minutes of football, seven goals had already been scored and that was also the moment Ronaldo’s match was over. He was substituted and saw that Messi and Mbappé were also taken off a minute later. With the departure of the superstars, the game immediately became a lot less attractive, but there were still goals. Hugo Ekitike decided the one-on-one ten minutes before the end with the keeper in his favor (5-3) and deep into injury time Talisca determined the final score at 5-4.