The first game of Paris Saint-Germain’s trip of Japan resulted in a scoreless draw with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr club on Tuesday in Osaka. The match was a disappointment for the French club.
Fans in Japan went to stadiums in droves to see Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar perform during a series of friendlies for PSG in the previous year, but none of those three were on display during this particular set of matches.
Messi is now playing for a team in the Major League Soccer called Inter Miami, while Neymar has been out since February with a knee injury and has only recently returned to full training after being sidelined.
Mbappe was shockingly omitted from the team on the day before Paris Saint-Germain’s departure for Asia, and his future with the club is now up in the air.
In just the second minute of play in Osaka, Carlos Soler attempted an audacious free-kick from a distance from a distance, but Al Nassr goalkeeper Nawaf Alaqidi was up to the challenge.
Twenty minutes later, Noha Lemina had a chance to score for PSG after getting past the defense, but his shot went wide of the near post.
During the first half, a few of Ronaldo’s attempts garnered the most enthusiastic responses from the audience of 25,432, which was on the lower end of the scale.
Gianluigi Donnarumma made a save from him from six yards out on the first attempt, and then he attempted an acrobatic overhead kick that went wide of the goal, but it wouldn’t have counted anyway since he was offside.
The second half was characterized by several changes made by both teams, with Ronaldo being the last player taken off after 66 minutes of play.
Although PSG’s youngster Ilyes Housni looked active after coming in as a substitute and came close to scoring on a number of times, neither side was able to achieve a breakthrough in the match.
The next match for PSG will be against Cerezo Osaka on Friday, and then they will face Inter Milan in Tokyo on the following day.
On Thursday, Al Nassr will compete against Inter in Osaka.