Ronaldo and Messi shine in Saudi Arabia All-Star friendly vs PSG

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, got punched in the face once and completed abundant step-overs for the Riyadh All-Stars on Thursday against PSG.

There it was. The jump, the spin, the landing, the noise echoing around a stadium.

The iconic Ronaldo celebration, a sequence of events likely to be seen many more times as he suits up for Al-Nassr. This one maybe just a little sweeter with Messi still on the pitch.

Ronaldo scored twice in his Saudi debut during a chaotic friendly between the Riyadh All-Star XI and Paris Saint-Germain, which the French club won 5-4. Although both teams fielded full-strength lineups, the thousands of eyes in the stadium were always going to be on Ronaldo and Messi.

Ronaldo did his part, taking his two goals well, and there was the familiar bag of tricks, as well as some perhaps over-the-top antics. It all amounted to what can be considered a vintage late-career Ronaldo performance.

GOAL takes a look at five of the best moments from Ronaldo’s outing…

A hug for Messi before kick-off

The rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo is soaked in mythology. They don’t comment on each other much, but there tends to be a mutual sporting respect. And although Ronaldo commented that they “might have dinner together someday” at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in 2019, the two don’t appear to be particularly close.

It was nice, then, to see two of football’s greatest-ever players share a smile and hug before kick-off. Messi, of course, had more to be happy about in the early goings, as he finished off a lovely PSG move inside three minutes, handing his team a 1-0 lead.

Ronaldo would answer later, though.

CR7 was also friendly with former Real Madrid team-mate Sergio Ramos, the two pictured laughing in the tunnel, and Kylian Mbappe, the young PSG forward who idolised him.

Source; Goal