Pre-season continues
For their third pre-season friendly and the first game of the China Tour 2019, Paris Saint-Germain faced Inter Milan in Macao.
The key moments
Thomas Tuchel made only minor adjustments to his starting XI, keeping faith with most of the players who had played a role in the 6-1 defeat of Dynamo Dresden and last Saturday's 1-1 draw with Nuremberg. The set-up did, however, with 4-4-2 morphing into the more usual 4-3-3 formation. Pablo Sarabia's first-minute shot stated the Rouge-et-Bleu's intentions, though Inter Milan forced three fine stops from Alphonse Areola by means of their riposte.
It was nearing the end of the first half when Tuchel saw his men make the breakthrough. After a foul on Kylian Mbappé, Sarabia swept in a free-kick that Thilo Kehrer sent into the net with a header that ricocheted in off the crossbar (1-0, 41').
Ivan Perisic carved out the opening opportunity of the second half, but again Areola denied the Croatia international before Nicolo Barella also brought the France international goalkeeper into action.
At the opposite end, Samir Handanovic also had to move smartly to keep out a Sarabia shot that might have finished off a sweeping counter-attack in style.
Fifteen minutes from time, Tuchel made nine changes with Edinson Cavani and Colin Dagba playing their first minutes of the new season. Only Areola and Abdou Diallo played the whole game.
It was an Inter substitute, Samuele Longo, who equalised with the last kick of normal time (1-1, 90+4') to send the game into a penalty shoot-out.
Adil Aouchiche - Paris' fourth taker - was the first to miss, but Antonio Candreva chipped his penalty onto the bar as it went to sudden death. Arthur Zagre's spot-kick was saved by Handanovic as Inter won through.
A Parisian in the match: Ander Herrera
It was the Spaniard's third game in the Paris shirt, and he racked up another convincing display. The number 21 was the dominant presence in the centre of the pitch, and as well as playing a major part in winning back possession, he also started a number of Paris attacks, fulfilling his role as the man to balance defence and attack perfectly.
Coming up
The squad will stay in China to face Sydney FC in Suzhou on Tuesday (kick-off 14:00CEST) before their first competitive fixture of the 2019/20 campaign: the Trophée des Champions against Stade Rennais FC in Shenzhen on 3 August.