There were two first-half goals through Neymar and Arkadiusz Milik, but they were both ruled out for narrow offsides. Achraf Hakimi was then sent off in the second half, but Marseille was unable to capitalise on their man advantage.
Mauricio Pochettino was able to line up his Quatre Fantastiques in Lionel Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria, but they were unable to find a way through a stubborn Marseille defence. Following Achraf’s red card, Di Maria was the man withdrawn.
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In the 14th minute, Neymar’s shot looked like it was going miles wide of Pau Lopez’s goal, but Luan Peres turned it into his own net. Luckily for the Marseille centre-back, though, Neymar was adjudged by the VAR to have been narrowly offside.
Six minutes later, it was Marseille who thought they had taken the lead. The roof came off the Velodrome as Milik kept his composure to turn home a cross from Pol Lirola, but a VAR review confirmed that the wing-back was in an offside position when he received the ball.
Messi was pretty quiet for the majority of the game, but he did see his header come back out off the crossbar after he found himself in acres of space in the 26th minute.
Achraf sent off
PSG still seemed in second gear heading into the second half, and nine minutes after halftime their task was made harder as Achraf brought down Cengiz Under as the last man and was given his marching orders.
Initially, the referee gave a foul in favour of PSG, but after a VAR review, it was confirmed that the right-back did foul Under. Frustratingly for Marseille, though, the foul occurred on the edge of the box and not inside the area.
The wind was in Marseille’s sails and Valentin Rongier almost opened the scoring in the 65th minute, as his header from a pinpoint Dimitri Payet cross went just wide of Keylor Navas’ post.
Towards the end of the game, Mbappe was through on goal and looked like a guarantee to score, but William Saliba made a last-ditch tackle to prevent the PSG forward from scoring.
This result means that PSG still have a seven-point lead at the top of Ligue 1, and next Friday they host last year’s champions, Lille, at the Parc des Princes. Marseille, meanwhile, takes on southern neighbours Nice in what is a replay of their abandoned match on August 22. [AF]
