Messi Silenced In First Le Classique For PSG
25 October, 2021
Lionel Messi's wait for a first goal in Ligue 1 goes on after Paris Saint-Germain dropped points against Marseille in Le Classique on Sunday night.
Ligue 1
Result: Marseille 0-0 Paris Saint-Germain
Date: 24 October 2021
Venue: Orange Vélodrome
PSG made four changes from their win over RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League, as Neymar and Angel Di Maria returned alongside rare starts for Danilo and Nuno Mendes.
The visitors had a slow start but they thought they were 1-0 up in the 14th minute after Luan Peres swept an attempted clearance from Neymar's diagonal pass, searching for Kylian Mbappe, into his own net but the goal was disallowed by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for an offside on the Brazilian.
The game opened up after that, as Arkadiusz Milik also found the back of the net for Marseille six minutes later with a good finish inside the box after a cross by Pol Lirola but the goal was chalked off by the VAR for an offside.
Mauricio Pochettino's charges were gaining the upper hand in the latter phase of the first stanza and Lionel Messi came close to breaking the deadlock for PSG just before the half-time break with a curling strike from the edge of the box that missed just wide.
While Jorge Sampaoli's men were causing problems for PSG on counter-attacks, the visitors were reduced to ten men just before the hour-mark after Achraf Hakimi was sent off for bringing down Cengiz Under who was going through on goal.
Pochettino sacrificed Di Maria after that, as he brought on Thilo Kehrer to plug the gap at right-back and that saw Mbappe having to play as a lone-striker.
The Parisians had their backs against the wall in the closing stages and Konrad De Later Fuente had a big chance for Marseille in the last 13 minutes with a free header at the back post that missed wide.
Pochettino withdrew Neymar for Georginio Wijnaldum with his last throw of the dice, but they were unable to find a winning goal in the latter stages as the encounter ended all square.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za
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