In Ligue 1, at the Vélodrome stadium, Paris Saint-Germain is right at home. Undefeated in Marseille in the league since November 2011, the capital club won again (2-0) on Sunday March 31, despite more than a half being outnumbered. Under the eyes of excited Marseille supporters and in a record crowd at the Stade Vélodrome – 66,046 people were present in the stands – Paris ended OM's series of 19 unbeaten home matches.
This “classic” was Kylian Mbappé's last before his departure from PSG at the end of the season and the striker did not score, leaving it to Vitinha (53rd) and Gonçalo Ramos (85th) to score the two Parisian goals on counterattacks. But the real star of the evening was Gianluigi Donnarumma. Impassable, the PSG goalkeeper made ten saves, during an evening where the capital club was often manhandled in the pouring rain.
Despite numerous situations, Marseille “came across an incredible goalkeeper”, conceded Amine Harit on Prime Video after the match. Like his teammates, the Moroccan was particularly frustrated by Donnarumma, particularly on his two strikes attempted at the end of the match (87th, 89th). Earlier in the match, the Italian had been replaced by the referee, while Jordan Veretout thought he had equalized with a nice volley (58th).
Benoît Bastien, the referee of the match, came to explain on the microphone of Prime Video the decision to cancel the Marseille goal: “At the time of the strike, Luis Henrique is in an offside position and due to his very close proximity with the goalkeeper, it influences the latter's ability to intervene. » The most beautiful emotion of the evening was therefore short-lived for OM and its supporters. The latter, on the other hand, had very well received Benoît Bastien's first strong decision of the evening, that of excluding Lucas Beraldo before half-time, for a foul on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (40th).
Mbappé released from the hour mark
This occurred after PSG had gone through a very complicated first period. “We didn’t have a good first half, there were a lot of errors, we lost balls,” Luis Enrique reacted to Prime Video. The Parisian coach was much more satisfied with the second period of his players, able to resist the Marseille pressure while outnumbered and to make the difference on counter-attacks.
“At ten, we showed that PSG is a team that knows how to fight. We are very satisfied with the victory,” said Danilo. The Portuguese finished the match with the armband around his arm, after the exit of Kylian Mbappé at the hour mark (64th). Already in difficulty during the week on the pitch at the Vélodrome, against Chile with the French team, the Parisian striker once again performed poorly.
But he confirmed, for his last “classic” under the Parisian colors, that he never loses against OM, at the end of his sixteenth match against the Marseille club. By removing his striker, who came to sit on the sidelines at the end of the match after a visit to the locker room, Luis Enrique went into management mode, while his team was leading.
The Spaniard knows that PSG, which is twelve points ahead of Brest (2nd), has a new very important meeting on Wednesday: the capital club will host Stade Rennais at the Parc des Princes in the semi-final. of the Coupe de France. There is no doubt that Mbappé will start for this meeting and Luis Enrique therefore preferred to take it easy. The Parisian captain was entitled to an outing under the whistles of the Vélodrome, from where the Parisians once again set off on conquered territory.
