Paris Saint-Germain lost (3-2) to Cereza Osaka on Friday.
After a victory against Le Havre and a draw against Al-Nassr, Paris Saint-Germain continued their preparation this Friday against Cerezo Osaka. Still without Mbappé dismissed, nor Marco Verratti and Neymar, on the bench at kick-off, the Parisians started the meeting with Hugo Ekitike starting point, he who had remained on the bench against Al-Nassr.
Rhythmic first half
At the start of the game, Luis Enrique’s men were jostled by the intense pressing of the Osaka players, who were on a break in the middle of their season in the Japanese league. But Paris finally finds the fault in the 17th minute by Ekitike who cuts the trajectory of a Warren Zaire-Emery shot and opens the scoring. But five minutes later, the lack of communication between Milan Skriniar and Danilo Pereira offers a duel to Jordy Croux against Donnarumma, the Belgian does not tremble and equalizes for his team. Despite dominating possession of the ball, the capital’s players failed to get a dangerous chance and returned to the locker room with a scoreless draw.
Paris is being scuttled
After only two changes at the break, PSG quickly regained the advantage thanks to Vitinha who took advantage of a magnificent delivery of a doubly decisive Ekitike. But the champions of France remain fragile in this meeting and concede new Japanese opportunities. shortly after the hour mark, Enrique made several changes including the entries of Marco Verratti and Lucas Hernandez. Which will be noticed only three minutes later for a lost ball just off its surface which leads to the equalization of Osaka by Sota Kitano.
The Parisians tense up and continue to suffer the strong pressure exerted by their opponents before being punished once again. In the 79th minute, the referee generously lets play after a foul on Cher Ndour, Arai slips the ball to Shinji Kagawa, the former Manchester United player comes to clean the skylight from the entrance to the surface and gives the advantage to his team for the first time in the game. Paris tries to react but Ismaël Gharbi completely misses the target on his attempt from the left in the area.
Without Neymar left on the bench, Paris lost in a friendly for the first time since 2018 against Arsenal, ending a series of 23 friendly matches without defeat. Next meeting Tuesday in Tokyo against Inter Milan.
