Paris conceded a misstep for its 2nd outing in Japan. The French champion was beaten by Cerezo Ozaka.
Already held in check by Al-Nassr last weekend, PSG failed again this Friday. On the occasion of the second match of its Japanese tour, the Ile-de-France team was surprised by the local team of Cerezo Ozaka (2-3).
Luis Enrique’s men have led twice in this game, but they have been caught each time. And a quarter of an hour from the end, they conceded a third goal which weighed down their performance.
This is the first setback for the Parisians in this preparation sentence. This is not reassuring and it will be necessary to correct the situation next Tuesday during the duel against Inter. In the meantime, the recorded defeat could be rich in lessons. Here are a few to note.
Verratti played
Paris came to this game with an interesting XI featuring a lot of important players. But, Marco Verratti started the game on the bench. It is felt in the second half. A limited playing time and which confirms the hypothesis of an imminent departure of the “Little Owl”. He has been announced at Al-Hilal for a few days and the management certainly wanted to preserve him so as not to injure him. His appearance of the day could therefore be his very last in the Parisian jersey.
No trace of Neymar
While he was expected to return to the field during this game, the Brazilian finally remained on the bench. The Parisian number 10 did not even get up to warm up. With only a week of collective training in his legs, he may not yet be fully ready to play again. Luis Enrique is very cautious towards him. The Spaniard is going to rely heavily on his former protege at Barca so there was no need to take risks for a simple friendly game. That said, the presence of “Ney” against Inter is not excluded.
⌛️ End of the game in Osaka. Our Parisians bow for this second preparation match in Japan 🆚 @crz_official#PSGCRZ I 2-3 pic.twitter.com/FbP3QXn5wU
— Paris Saint Germain (@PSG_inside) July 28, 2023
A flimsy defense
Until then, in its preparation matches, PSG had not conceded a goal. On this game, he took three at once. And they were pretty much preventable. The first was due to a communication error between Skriniar and Danilo Pereira. On the second, no one prevented the opposing shooter from arming his shot at the entrance to the surface. And finally, on the third, Nhaga got the leather on the right flank by being too tender in front of his vis-à-vis. In short, there were many air pockets in defense and this problem should be corrected.
Ekitiké feasts
Paris has not yet signed a striker in this transfer window. In the meantime, Hugo Ekitiké seems to be doing the trick. Already a scorer against Le Havre, he did it again this Friday. With a good recovery, he came to pick up an excellent center-shooter from Warren Zaire-Emery. The former Reims is very comfortable when he evolves in his preferential position. In addition to scoring, he also manages to combine well with his partners. It was he who launched Vitinha for the 2-1 goal with a well-felt heel. Doubly decisive therefore, he clearly scored points in the eyes of his coach.
An environment that does not reassure
The Parisian team does not currently give many guarantees in the midfield. Certainly, it was not complete, but those who were aligned were not blues either. The Uruguayan Ugarte was still quite average, and one wonders if the club was right to pay so much for his services. At his side, Danilo Pereira also showed fragility. There was better in the second half but it was then it was in another register that the midfielders sinned. That of efficiency. Like Gherbi and Soler. For Luis Enrique, this is an important project to refine.
