Lionel Messi shines again with PSG and sets the tone with his head on the Qatar World Cup

Paris Saint Germain, with the stellar presence of Lionel Messi, closed their tour of Japan on Monday with a friendly against Gamba Osaka. And the Argentine crack shone again and showed the need to have a good preseason to reach its best form for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, which will be played from 21 November to 18 December.

Messi, who started again, scored one of the goals of the almighty French team, which crushed the Asian team 6-2. Rosario’s goal was the fourth for PSG, who took the lead on the scoreboard with the screams of the Spaniard Pablo Sarabia – he capitalized on a rebound after a powerful La Pulga shot – and Neymar, on a penalty, who unlocked the scoreboard at 28 already the 32 minutes of the initial part.

Keisuke Kurokawa served the touch for Gamba Osaka, but Portuguese Nuno Mendes and the phenomenon Rosario immediately appeared, with a left touch after a precise assist from Neymar, to lengthen the distance and make the game logical before the interval.

Already in the second part, before the quarter of an hour, the courtesies have been returned. Messi put a dagger in the void to convert Neymar again, this time with a long dribble to snub Higashiguchi and define an empty net.

Leandro Paredes, after the long injury, started from the substitutes ‘bench and reached the 15’ of the complement for the Italian Marco Verrati. The national team midfielder should be one hundred percent ready for the first official match of the 2022/23 season.

Gamba Osaka, who was ready for the slap, found himself with the discount in the 24th minute, just before the interval for hydration, after the appearance of Hiroto Yamami, who could not believe that he had transformed himself against a rival of this kind. carat. And before the match resumed, Galtier got his hands on the team again and entered the combo outgoing Messi, which gave way to Mauro Icardi.

To complete the party appeared Mbappé, who started as a starter on the bench – he is disqualified and will not be able to play the final against Nantes – and in the 40th minute of the second half he scored a penalty on which Ryu Takao had committed himself. The Frenchman, a great figure among the Parisians, showed flashes of speed and drove rival defenders crazy in the half hour he was on the pitch after replacing the returnee Sarabia.

Eventually he has a chance to turn Paredes, who wanted to score a backhand goal from the right after an Icardi pass, but the ball went slightly wide when Taichi Kato, the goalkeeper entered by Higashiguchi, just hit and watched.

This is the last preparation match before the official debut of coach Christophe Galtier, which will be on Sunday 31st for the French Super Cup against Nantes in Tel Aviv.

The first friendly was a 2-1 win over Kawasaki with a goal from Messi from the right and then it was 3-0 against Urawa with Rosario off the bench but came in for Mauro Icardi.