After a victory against Le Havre and a sad draw against Al Nassr, PSG faced Cerezo Osaka as their third summer preparation match, the second of their tour in Japan, before finishing with Inter Milan on Tuesday. New coach Luis Enrique continues his squad review and various positioning tests. This Friday, we discovered a Skriniar-Danilo hinge, Marquinhos on the right side, Ugarte back as a sentry, Asensio as a winger to serve Ekitike, Kurzawa still incumbent and Marco Verratti on the bench.
The first quarter of an hour resembled two drops of water like the two previous matches: completely harmless possession, where individual initiatives were as rare as a forward pass from Ugarte. But Ekitike brightened up the proceedings, feeling the blow on a strike from Zaire-Emery, and opened the scoring, his second goal after that scored against Le Havre (1-0, 17th). Nevertheless, PSG did not enjoy their advantage for long. Following an inglorious disagreement between Danilo and Skriniar on a clearance by the opposing goalkeeper, Jordi Croux went to challenge Donnarumma, whom he crucified with a dry strike despite the returns of Skriniar and Marquinhos (1-1, 22nd).
Shinji Kagawa crucifies PSG
The Skriniar-Danilo hinge showed worrying signs in the management of depth and Donnarumma had to work on a strike from Ceara (29th). Not much was happening offensively on the PSG side, despite the good will of Ekitike, rather interesting in his calls. But Gharbi remained far too shy, while Asensio mainly thought of trying long shots. Upon returning from the locker room, Soler replaced Asensio and discovered yet another new position, that of left winger. PSG put a little more movement, embodied by the pretty number performed by Vitinha and Ekitike. The first relied on the second at the entrance to the surface. Ekitike was on the heels and Vitinha could beat the opposing goalkeeper closely (2-1, 49th).
Luis Enrique was making a wave of changes, with the entries in particular of Verratti (who inherited the captain’s armband), Lucas Hernandez and Lemina. Soler went back to the right and missed a golden opportunity (60th). The Cerezo Osaka did not give up and even equalized, following a new defensive error, this time signed Lucas Hernandez, who lost the ball on a hook blocked by Watanabe. Kitano controlled in the box and executed Donnarumma with a half-volley (2-2, 68′). The pace was finally picking up. Hakimi in turn missed a great opportunity (72nd), and PSG was going to concede a new goal. Once again, it was a real fault on Ndour, at the entrance to the surface. The referee did not whistle and an old acquaintance of European football, Shinji Kagawa, sent a shot in the skylight (2-3, 79th). The meeting was a little tense, and it was of course a defeat that PSG ended. Luis Enrique still has work ahead of him!
