Marseille 0 - 0 Paris SG: Les Olympiens fail to kill off 10-man PSG

VAR played a massive part in 'Le Classique’, ruling out a first-half goal for either side and intervening to send off Achraf Hakimi as Olympique de Marseille were held to a 0-0 draw by Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

It was an electric start to the 101st ‘Le Classique’, and in the opening 21 minutes both teams had seen an opener ruled out by VAR. PSG’s came first, with Neymar judged to have been offside when receiving the ball before firing a shot in off Luan Peres. Minutes later, after Arkadiusz Milik had scored for Marseille, the goal was struck off for Pol Lirola venturing offside to provide the assist. 

The action didn’t let up, and it was baffling that neither side had taken the lead before HT. Lionel Messi, fresh from two UEFA Champions League goals in midweek, had a header tipped over and curled a trademark strike narrowly wide, whilst Cengiz Ünder wasted a gilt-edged opportunity one-on-one with Keylor Navas.

With the two deadlocked on 32 H2H wins apiece, it would be a big second half to see who would swing the record books in their favour. The task became much harder for ‘Les Parisiens’ in the 57th minute when Hakimi saw red for bringing down Ünder, who was through on goal following a VAR inspection, and the hosts rallied behind their deafening supporters to find a winner. 

Valentin Rongier thought he had scored it with 25 minutes to play, although his header bounced agonizingly wide of the post, and substitute Konrad de la Fuente spurned a back-post shot from five yards as ‘Les Olympiens’ ultimately failed to make their one-man advantage count and steal all three points.

A better point for PSG on this occasion sees their lead at the top of Ligue 1 cut to seven points following second-place Lens’ earlier win, whilst Marseille, who have now failed to score in five of their last seven matches in all competitions, drop down to fourth, albeit with a game advantage on the aforementioned Lens.