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Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) boss Christophe Galtier believes his side's upcoming friendly against Riyadh XI, dubbed the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo clash, is a good advertisement for international football.
The Parisians have traveled to the Middle East to face a side comprising of the best players from two clubs based out of Saudi Arabia's capital city of Riyadh (Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal). Ronaldo, who joined Al-Nassr in December last year, is expected to lead Riyadh XI.
The game, set to take place on Thursday (January 19), is thus being dubbed as a clash between the two arch-rivals, Messi and Ronaldo.
Galtier believes his team will not take it as a training match and will rather put their best foot forward to prepare for the upcoming challenges in Europe.
"It's good for international football, for football in this region. It's a great promotion of our sport. I think there will be an audience," the French tactician said (via RMC Sport), stressing that it will help promote football in the Middle East.
He added that the presence of "the two most successful active players in the world" in Ronaldo and Messi will ensure that the game will be played with a competitive spirit.
"We have adapted. We have very good conditions," Galtier said of the team's preparation for the upcoming friendly in Riyadh.
The match on Thursday will see Messi and Ronaldo go against each other for the first time since the group stages of the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League. The latter, then with Juventus, netted twice on that occasion to give his team a 3-0 win over his rival's Barcelona side at the Camp Nou.
Christophe Galtier hopes Lionel Messi and PSG find rhythm in friendly vs Cristiano Ronaldo's Riyadh XI
Christophe Galtier hopes PSG's upcoming friendly and their Coupe de France encounter against Pays de Cassel on January 23 will help them prepare for the rest of the season.
"We must use this match and Monday's match in the Coupe de France (against Pays de Cassel) to both find rhythm on an individual level and more coherence on a collective level, and to finally finding a PSG side which had done well the first part of the season before the World Cup and which is struggling to restart," he stated.
The French giants have struggled to hit the ground running since the restart after the 2022 FIFA World Cup-induced break. They have lost two league matches since, which has cut their lead at the top of the Ligue 1 table to just three points.
Galtier will hope that the likes of Messi, Neymar Jr. and Kylian Mbappe find their feet against Riyadh XI and return to France refreshed.
