Paris Saint-Germain’s new coach Christophe Galtier said his side allowed “two goals too many” despite Lionel Messi and Neymar making a deadly combination in a 6-2 thrashing of Gamba Osaka on Monday. Neymar scored a brace and Messi grabbed one in Osaka as a rampant PSG capped their pre-season trip to Japan with a third win in as many games.
The French champions now head to Israel to face Nantes in the French Super Cup in Tel Aviv on July 31.
Galtier, who was in charge of the full squad for the first time since joining PSG from Nice this summer, said playing J-League teams in the middle of their domestic season “forced us to raise our physical level” .
“We trained a lot, played a lot with little recovery time,” he said after PSG’s third game in six days.
“But overall I’m happy with both this game and more generally with the three games we’ve played here in Japan.”
Star forwards Neymar and Messi both played the first 70 minutes against Gamba, and Neymar scored a penalty in the first half before scoring a goal for his Argentine team-mate.
Messi then returned the favor in the second half, leaving Neymar free for the Brazilian to score his second goal of the game.
Kylian Mbappe got his name on the scoresheet with a late penalty after coming on in the final 30 minutes.
Pablo Sarabia and Nuno Mendes also scored for PSG, but Galtier was concerned about the way his team faced two on the other side of Gamba, who is 16th in the 18-team J-League table.
“There is still a lot of work to do because we conceded two goals, that’s two too many,” he said.
“I hope that even if we have a significant lead, we will be harder to beat if we have to defend as a team. We need to be more structured.”
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PSG defeated J-League champion Kawasaki Frontale 2-1 in their first game in Japan last Wednesday before beating Urawa Reds 3-0 three days later.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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