On January 30, Beijing time, world champion Messi led Inter Miami to continue participating in the warm-up match, and was defeated 3-4 by Riyadh Crescent, the top team in the Saudi Arabian Super League, in an away game. Messi contributed 1 goal and 1 assist, all three attempts were successful, and 31 of 39 passes were successful. In the early morning of February 2nd, Beijing time, Inter Miami will challenge Riyadh away from home. The "lifelong enemies" Messi and Ronaldo will have the opportunity to face off again.
Messi and Suarez led Inter Miami's starting lineup in this campaign, but they were unable to reunite with Neymar, who was originally the top star of Riyadh Crescent. From 2014 to 2017, Messi, Suarez, and Neymar formed the invincible "MSN combination" in La Liga giants Barcelona. In October last year, Neymar was seriously injured while representing Brazil in the World Cup qualifiers. He is not expected to return until August this year. He will not be able to participate in this summer's Copa America. When attending the 58th birthday party of former Brazilian superstar Romario on January 29, Neymar was seriously out of shape and had become "fat".
Neymar is living happily everywhere with Riyadh Crescent's annual salary of 100 million euros, and the club still needs to operate normally. In recent winter transfers, Riyadh Crescent has introduced Brazilian national team left-back Lodi from French Ligue 1 giant Marseille. Due to the limited number of foreign players registered by the team, Neymar has been removed from this season's player list.
In this game, Lodi started for Riyadh Crescent. Mitrovic, Milinkovic, Neves, Malcom, Michael and other famous players all started. Bunu and Kuliba, who are participating in the African Cup, Leigh missed the game. Riyadh Crescent is a major supplier of Saudi Arabian international players. Nine Saudi international players, including the main scorer Aldo Sari, are participating in the Asian Cup and of course cannot participate in this warm-up match.
Riyadh Crescent leads the Saudi Arabian Super League standings. Inter Miami ranked third from the bottom among the 29 teams in the MLS last season. Although Inter Miami received new aid Suarez, Riyadh Crescent has an obvious advantage on the court. In the 10th minute, Lodi and Milinkovic launched an attack, with Mitrovic taking the lead for the home team. In the 13th minute, Hamdan expanded the score for Riyadh Crescent.
Inter Miami had a goalless draw in its previous two warm-up matches, drawing 0-0 with El Salvador and losing 0-1 to FC Dallas in away games. They finally scored in this game. In the 34th minute, Alba launched an attack, and Suarez scored his first goal on behalf of Inter Miami with a supplementary shot. In the 44th minute, Michael scored with a header and Riyadh Crescent led 3-1.
In the 52nd minute, Busquets passed the ball and Ruiz was brought down by Lodi in the penalty area, winning a penalty kick for Inter Miami. Messi took the penalty kick. The last time the ball king scored was in the World Cup qualifying match on October 18 last year. In the 54th minute, Messi sent a direct pass from the left, and Ruiz volleyed to tie the score at 3-3. In the 88th minute, Malcom, the former Barcelona strike partner of Messi and Suarez, scored the winning goal for Riyadh Crescent.
Inter Miami's offensive efficiency was very high in this game, with all three shots on goal converted into goals, but overall they were at a clear disadvantage. Riyadh Crescent achieved a 63.4% ball possession rate, leading 17-7 in shots and 7-3 in shots on target.
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Liu Yi