PLAYER RATINGS | Marseille 0-2 PSG: Contentious decisions dominate Le Classique
Olympique de Marseille looked to the international break for a moment to rest and reset after two defeats but ended up in an injury crisis. Leonardo Balerdi and Ulisses Garcia’s expedited recovery helped alleviate some of the defensive concerns ahead of a visit from eternal rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite the circumstances, Marseille played well in the early stages of the first half, even controlling the ball for parts of the match. However, it wasn’t to last as PSG slowly gained a foothold in the game. The visitors moved the ball around well and looked to begin to break past the defensive line with ease.
Both sides came close to scoring but neither found the net with Marseille hitting the post from a Jordan Veretout effort, while Ousmane Dembélé from his false nine position, dribbled past the defence and looked to be through on goal before his shot trickled wide.
However, the shape of the game looked to fundamentally change when Lucas Beraldo pushed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off the pitch. It looked like a fair challenge which the referee originally waved on before VAR advised him to consult the replay.
On his second look, the referee upgraded his decision to a straight red card dropping PSG to ten men for the remaining five minutes of the first half.
Marseille’s problems grew again in the second half when Chancel Mbemba came off injured. Samuel Gigot who was a doubt for this game was brought on in his place. It only took PSG a few minutes to make the issue worse, a sweeping attack from the visitors, saw Dembélé drift into the box before selflessly shifting the ball wide to Vitinha to finish the movement.
Veretout believed he’d levelled the scores but was left ruing the offside flag, as Harit’s cutback was
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