French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) suffered a painful moral defeat at the hands of their Japanese hosts, Cerezo Osaka, losing 2-3 on Friday in their second match of the Asian tour preparing for the new season.
The Parisian club, which traveled to Japan without their star Kylian Mbappé—expected to leave this summer to avoid departing the "Parc des Princes" without a fee a year after the end of his contract—opened the scoring through Hugo Ekitike in the 17th minute after he broke the offside trap from a cross by 17-year-old Warren Zaïre-Emery.
However, Belgian player Jordi Cruyff equalized just a few minutes later (22) following a defensive mistake by new Slovak signing Milan Škriniar and Portuguese Danilo Pereira, who failed to intercept a long ball from goalkeeper Yang Han-bin.
The score remained tied until halftime while Brazilian star Neymar watched from the bench.
At the start of the second half, PSG regained the lead through Portuguese Vitinha after a lovely exchange of passes with Ekitike (49), but the Japanese team refused to give up and equalized again in the 67th minute with a goal from substitute Sota Kitano following a cross from Ryu Watanabe.
The remarkable Japanese comeback was completed with a goal from former Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa, who fired the ball into the top corner of PSG's goal (79).
PSG hopes to regain their morale when they face Italian side Inter Milan, the runners-up in the Champions League, next Tuesday in Tokyo, before traveling to South Korea to face Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.
It is worth noting that PSG will begin their campaign to defend the French league title on August 12 against Lorient.
