Al Hilal’s Michael doing the iconic ‘Siuuu’ celebration (Credit: X)
Al-Hilal’s Michael scored the third goal for his side right before the stroke of halftime and pulled out the iconic Cristiano Ronaldo ‘Siuuu’ celebration, to add insult to injury for Messi’s Inter Miami.
There is no other rivalry more storied in modern-day football than Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi. Even after two decades of nonstop dominance, in the latter stages of their career, they are inseparably compared.
With Ronaldo moving to the Saudi Pro League and Messi to the MLS, it seemed like an era had come to an end. But the impact that these two had still persists. And it came to light once again on Monday when Al-Hilal played Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami in a friendly.
The game was the latest leg of Miami’s globe-trotting pre-season tour ahead of the start of the Major League Soccer season on February 21.
In a thrilling encounter, that eventually ended 4-3 in favour of the Saudi side, Aleksandar Mitrovic opened the scoring within 10 minutes. Just three minutes later, Abdullah Al-Hamdan doubled his side’s lead before Luis Suarez halved the deficit.
Then, it was the turn of Al-Hilal’s Michael, who scored the third goal for his side right before the stroke of halftime and pulled out the iconic Cristiano Ronaldo ‘Siuuu’ celebration, to add insult to injury for Messi’s Inter Miami.
After the interview, Michael said, “I thank all those involved in the Riyadh Season Cup, which allowed us to face the best player in the world, Lionel Messi.”
“I am not worth anything in front of Messi, so I should not be compared to him. I am a big admirer of Messi and I love him very much.”
Messi would go on to make an impact in the encounter as he converted one from the penalty spot in the 54th minute to bring one back for Inter Miami, after Mohammed Jahfali was harshly adjudged to have brought down David Ruiz in the area.
But, an 88th minute header from Malcom would deprive Inter Miami of a draw as Al-Hilal ended up clinching the win 4-3.
Next up, history repeats itself again, as Inter Miami face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr in their second friendly in Saudi Arabia on Thursday before heading to Asia for games in Hong Kong and Japan.
