Paris Saint-Germain dominated ten-man Marseille with a merciless first-half display in the Stade Vélodrome’s 50th staging of Le Classique across all
Paris Saint-Germain dominated ten-man Marseille with a merciless first-half display in the Stade Vélodrome’s 50th staging of Le Classique across all competitions, ultimately running out 3-0 victors to go three points clear at the top of Ligue 1.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side knew the importance of laying down an early-season marker against their illustrious rivals, who had recorded five successive Ligue 1 clean sheets at this ground prior to tonight.
However, the Olympians took just seven minutes to start the all too familiar self-destruction process against Luis Enrique’s side. Bradley Barcola fed in Nuno Mendes down the left flank, and the Phocaeans’ shot-stopper Geronimo Rulli could only parry the latter’s cross straight to João Neves, who made no mistake in slotting the ball home.
Soon, Marseille wouldn’t just be a goal down, as Amine Harit was shown a straight red card on his 100th Ligue 1 appearance for a high-footed challenge on Marquinhos. A torrid evening for the hosts would soon worsen after Leonardo Balerdi inexplicably poked an innocuous-looking cross past Rulli to double PSG’s lead – much to the disbelief of an incredulous De Zerbi.
And PSG would add a third to rub salt in Marseille’s gaping wounds, as Mason Greenwood’s errant pass across the pitch eventually resulted in Ousmane Dembele laying the ball on a plate for Barcola, who duly converted his eighth goal of the season.
After Dembélé blazed a close-range attempt over the bar, Marseille almost cut the deficit through Adrien Rabiot, but he could only do likewise after weaving his way into the box before blasting his shot over the bar.
However, the normal service of PSG pressure soon resumed, and Dembele – clearly thriving in a more central position – picked out Désiré Doué, who could only fire his effort straight at Rulli.
While Enrqiue would have been pleased with the clinical nature of PSG’s first-half performance, the visitors wasted another chance to add to their tally when Fabián Ruiz blazed his strike high over the target from Hakimi’s cross.
The reigning champions ultimately failed to add to their tally but had already done enough to continue their dominance of this fixture long before the final whistle.
Aside from embossing PSG’s status as odds-on title favourites, this victory – their fifth by a margin of two or more goals in six league visits – also means Marseille have failed to win any of the last 11 H2H league encounters at this ground, losing nine.
De Zerbi’s side remain third, but are now six points adrift of PSG, who are additionally now unbeaten in each of their last 11 league games.
