At least they put on a show if this is to be the final time Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi face off on the same field. CasinoDaddy is here to offer you a great list of the best sports betting casinos of January 2023.
The GOATs in the Gulf demonstration game took place on Thursday night and pitted Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain against a Riyadh Season Team that included Ronaldo, who had just joined the Saudi Pro League. Although it wasn’t nearly Real Madrid vs. Barcelona or Portugal vs. Argentina, the two longtime rivals nevertheless carried out their routine. They achieved success. In the end, Messi scored one goal and Ronaldo scored two in a game that PSG won 5-4. Both players were replaced after an hour.
For Messi, it was a continuation of the form he showed only one month prior when he led Argentina to victory at the World Cup. It served as a reminder for Ronaldo, whose final match ended in tears as Portugal was eliminated by Morocco in the semifinals, that despite a contentious breakup with Manchester United and a challenging experience in Qatar, he still has the ability to score goals. Given some of the defense on display, he should see a ton of opportunities in Saudi Arabia, and his new team, Al Nassr, will be expecting it after paying him $200 million per year. If you are looking for some top-level of fun – Casino WinBig is the place to bet at!
The star of the show was Ronaldo, who was unexpectedly chosen as man of the match. Despite sitting on the bench for the final 30 minutes, he gave the audience kisses when he appeared on the stadium’s large screens. He didn’t appear to be a man who was dissatisfied with the recent turn in his career as he laughed and joked with Sergio Ramos before the game and wore a broad smile as he went out ahead of kickoff beneath a wave of silver confetti.
Just a few weeks before to his hat tricks in the Premier League against Tottenham and Norwich, Ronaldo started for United in a 3-1 victory against Brentford. When he eventually makes his Al Nassr debut on Sunday against Ettifaq FC, he will have to be content with a pair of goals after bidding farewell to European football. If nothing else, Ronaldo will be loved in Saudi Arabia, where fans celebrated each touch of the ball as if it were going into the goal while sporting jerseys from Al Nassr, United, Juventus, and Portugal.
After three minutes, Messi’s first touch did go in, superbly set up by Neymar, but Ronaldo quickly leveled the score. When Keylor Navas, a former Real Madrid colleague, clattered him as he leaped to head a free kick that floated into the penalty area, Qatari referee Abdulrahman al Jassim pointed to the spot.
Ronaldo scored decisively from 12 yards despite needing treatment for a cut lip. He then sprinted to the corner for his signature “Siuuuu!” celebration, which was echoed by the majority of the King Fahd International Stadium crowd. Messi one, Ronaldo one. It would have been appropriate to close the half with a tie, but during the final five minutes, everyone appeared to forget that it was only intended to be an exhibition game.
Juan Bernat, a defender for PSG, received a red card after tackling Mohamed Kanno on the halfway line. Marquinhos then made it 2-1 with a tap-in goal, and PSG then had an opportunity to make it 3-1 when Neymar was given a penalty following a VAR review. The Brazilian’s penalty, though, was so feeble that Mohammed Al-Owais could have sprinted twice around the goal and still saved it. After scoring six goals in the World Cup, including in shootouts, it’s possible that Messi is tired of taking penalties.
With seconds remaining in the first half, Ronaldo went up above Ramos to head against the post and then turn in the rebound, proving that even though he is close to turning 38 and is clearly in the closing stretch of his career. What followed was another signature celebration.
After 60 minutes, the score was 4-3 when Ronaldo and Messi were replaced. They were last on the same field when Barcelona played Juventus in the Champions League in 2020. And as the game neared its conclusion, both PSG and the Riyadh squad, which included players from Al Nassr and Al Hilal, scored again, despite the cameras and the crowd’s apparent determination to pay more attention to the benches than the action on the field.
A game filled with goals ended 5-4, which felt appropriate given that the two players everyone came to see had a combined 1,600 goals. There always seem to be goals wherever Ronaldo or Messi is, and they performed as anticipated in the desert.
