Neymar had the chance last weekend to show the world that he still has all it takes to take over from the ageing reigning football icons Cristiano Ronaldo, 35, and Lionel Messi, 32.
The 28-year-old Brazilian and Paris Saint Germain left-winger showed flashes of the stuff he is made of when PSG played a friendly match with a Belgian club, Waasland-Beveren in Paris.
As usual, Neymar was the star man of the Friendly match that ended 7-0 in favour of PSG at the Parc des Princes on Friday. The Brazilian who said he was scared of being injured after the friendly match, gave the handful of spectators who were allowed into the stadium something to remember.
In one of such demonstrations, Neymar was seen making a stunning run to the touchline and slid to keep the ball in play before he took on his marker. After a couple of trickery, he picked up his teammate in the opponent’s box-eighteen and stylishly passed the ball to him.
Neymar Jr against Waasland-Beveren 🔥#PSGWBE
— VBET News (@VBETnews) July 18, 2020
pic.twitter.com/C4hIcNYLOY
In another entertaining aspect of the match, Neymar recreated the unique penalty format he and Lionel Messi made popular at Barcelona in 2015. But before he did that, he, first of all, asked the goalkeeper where he would like him to play the ball. The goalkeeper responded with a smile without knowledge of what was coming.
Neymar asked the keeper which corner to shoot, this guy is so goated. pic.twitter.com/eE35DxoV8f
— Galu (@PSGalu) July 17, 2020
After his friendly exchange with the goalkeeper, Neymar decided to pass the penalty kick to his teammate, Mauro Icardi, who beautifully slotted it into the net.
Neymar is in the leagues of ronaldinhos and messis pic.twitter.com/rmaWHxnBIg
— Quophie_Sterling (@Wisdom_agbo1) July 18, 2020
The latest team that tried to recreate this kind of penalty format was Real Madrid when they played their Spanish La Liga winning match against Villarreal on Thursday. Kareem Benzema laid the spot-kick to Sergio Ramos and the Real Madrid’s captain scored but the referee disallowed the goal because Ramos encroached into the box-eighteen too early.
Ramos and Benzema try to re create Barcelona’s vingare goal but penalty is disallowed! pic.twitter.com/7Z4Pk4punK
— Take Ballon D’or 2023 (@TechnicalTake26) July 16, 2020
Neymar and PSG are Preparing for UEFA Champions League Final
Meanwhile, PSG series of Friday matches were to prepare them for their UEFA quarter-final match against Atalanta on August 12. The first friendly match was against a French club, Le Havre which they won 9-0. The second was against Waasland-Beveren.
The last time PSG played a competitive match was in March as their 2019-2020 season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and they were declared champions of the league for the third time in a row.
“I was very happy to come back and play at home, with some fans as well”, Neymar said after the friendly match against Waasland-Beveren on Friday night. “We are preparing little by little to get to the maximum then we will be in the finals [Champions League]. The rest is not very important.”
