Fresh from winning the 2022 World Cup, Lionel Messi faced an old rival Cristiano Ronaldo in a friendly football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Al Nassr on Thursday (June 19) at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
PSG won 5-4.
While Messi has been playing for the Parisians since the 2021-22 season, Ronaldo recently completed a move to Al Nassr after mutually terminating his contract with Manchester United.
Thursday’s match was the first matchup between the two football titans since 2020 and the 37th time in their careers. This may be their last meeting on the field.
Respectively, Messi and Ronaldo were the first to score, with the Argentine legend netting after just three minutes. However, Ronaldo was stuck in the 34th minute, scoring from the penalty spot.
PSG’s Juan Bernat was shown a red card in the 39th minute before Marquinhos gave them the lead again (44′). CR7 scored the second goal (45’+6′) to tie the match at half-time.
Back and forth continued in the second half with Sergio Ramos giving PSG a short-lived 3-2 (53′) lead. Jang Hyun Soo he equalized it on three all three minutes later.
French superstar Kylian Mbappe he pushed PSG forward – again – with a goal from the penalty spot in the 60th minute.
Soon after, Ronaldo (61′) and Messi (62′) left the pitch.
Hugo Ekitike he extended PSG’s lead by scoring in the 78th minute to make it 5–3. Al Nassr never gave up Anderson Taliska giving his team a fourth late goal (90’+4′), but it wasn’t enough.
Ronaldo and Messi have now scored 23 goals each against each other, although Messi leads the series with 17 wins and Ronaldo 11.
