The Parisians beaten by Osaka

After a first game against Al-Nassr on this Asian tour, our Parisians were back in action on Friday against Cerezo Osaka. At the Nagai Stadium, Luis Enrique's men were once again able to gauge their incredible popularity on Japanese soil, with an atmosphere worthy of an official competitive match! The Paris Saint-Germain coach had reshuffled his starting eleven to give his entire squad some pace, and took advantage of the opportunity to alternate positions by, for example, throwing Marquinhos at right-back while Ugarte tested himself at the base of midfield.

There was a lot at stake in this latest warm-up match. Physically, our Rouge et Bleu were continuing to build up their fitness levels by racking up more minutes, while taking on a team that was firing on all cylinders on the eve of its 23rd league matchday. Tactically, the goal was to continue fine-tuning the patterns of play while facilitating the summer signings' integration. And just as well, as the current 5th-placed side in the J-League provided an interesting opposition.

So we had to be extra careful against a team ready to explode on the counter-attack. Gigio Donnarumma was able to testify to this after a dangerous attack in the opening minutes (6'). Hugo Ekitike, who scored his first goal of the season against Le Havre, was on hand to provide the first glimpse of life. The centre-forward got on the end of Warren Zaïre-Emery's curling pass to turn the ball round the keeper (1-0, 17'). The home side were not to be deterred, however, and with their fans cheering them on, Jordy Croux took advantage of a moment of confusion to equalise less than 5 minutes later (1-1, 22').

It was an end-to-end game, which continued as the Japanese and then the Parisians tried to get the better of each other, but it came to a head when Paris went up a gear. And as soon as the second half began, their efforts paid off! It was Vitinha who shone brightly, finishing off a superb team move with a one-two with Hugo Ekitike, whose back-heel was perfectly timed for the Portuguese's finish (2-1, 49').

As he had done in the previous match, Luis Enrique used the hour mark to carry out an extensive squad shake-up, making no fewer than five changes with the introduction of Cher Ndour, Fabian Ruiz, Lucas Hernandez, Marco Verratti and young Noah Lemina. The Cerezo players took full advantage of the few minutes they had to adapt to the game to pull a goal back through Sota Kitano (2-2, 67').

All our Rouge et Bleu wanted to respond with the coach's speciality: attack! Lemina (69'), Hakimi and Gharbi (71') and Ruiz (72') all tried their luck with shots, but failed to trouble the Japanese keeper. And it was at the other end of the pitch that the match turned on its head, with Japanese star Kagawa unleashing a marvellous curling shot to set the stadium alight (3-2, 78').

The scoreline remained unchanged, but the result was of little consequence to the Parisians, who will continue their summer preparations with another game on Tuesday against Inter Milan, their first European opponent on this Asian tour.