Marseilles (AFP)
Unsurprisingly, without trembling, without forcing, without even needing to start Neymar, Paris SG very easily won the 100th "Classic" in the history of French football on Sunday, beating Olympique de Marseille 2-0, now in pieces after two months of crisis.
"This is our Champions League in the league," Marseille interim coach Nasser Larguet said on Friday and it was well seen.
Because as in the Champions League at the start of the season, the Marseillais lost and noted the gap that separates them from the very high level.
Their state of mind is not in question and after the 10 days of storm that they have just faced, between the serious incidents of the Commandery, the resignation-layoff of André Villas-Boas and the tile of Milik's injury, they have some merit in trying to compete with PSG.
But Paris was much stronger and wanted to win, because it was a Classic, and also because Lyon and Lille did it this weekend and there is a championship to win, more difficult this season. .
For an hour, Neymar therefore saw all this from the sidelines, still smeared perhaps after the gastroenteritis which prevented him from training on Saturday.
But less than 10 days before the shock against Barcelona in the Champions League, Mauricio Pochettino probably also wanted to avoid any risk of injury for the Brazilian.
- Icardi from the back -
The mishap happened to Di Maria, released in the 10th minute by touching his right thigh and that is not good news for the Parisians.
The Argentine had nevertheless already had time to participate in the first goal of the match.
It all started from a Marseille corner.
On the counter-attack, Rongier was beaten with his head by ... Verratti and then everything went very quickly.
In two passes, including the last from Di Maria, Mbappé was thrown like a ball into a space too good to spoil it.
Sakai tackled into the void and the Blues striker quietly beat Mandanda (1-0, 9th).
Marseille then did not lower its head.
With a too high volley from Kamara, a good strike from Rongier and another superb from Gueye, the Provencals even occupied the field nicely.
But from the 25th minute, Icardi calmed these inclinations of rebellion with a goal from the back, his fourth in three matches against OM.
The Argentinian's goal is happy but he also exposed all the Marseille limits with, on the action, Payet passive, Nagatomo exceeded and Alvaro beaten by better than him.
- Payet expelled -
PSG therefore quickly killed all suspense and as, inevitably, there was no atmosphere either, either in the stadium or outside, where the Marseille fans were content with a few banners hostile to the management at the start of day, this "Classic" will not be remembered.
For OM, it will be easy to say that there was nothing to lose anyway.
It is not entirely false but Marseille (9th) had already lost a lot before and with now only one victory in the last 11 matches played in all competitions, there is beginning to be an emergency.
The red card received at the last minute by Payet for a clumsy foul on Verratti does not help and Larguet, or his successor, when he arrives, have work to do.
Paris, for its part, has fulfilled its contract.
Marquinhos and Verratti, again positioned high on Sunday, have made their comeback, Neymar has stretched his legs and everyone is now looking towards Camp Nou.
At other times, this match at the Velodrome could even have been a foretaste of the Champions League.
But Sunday in Marseille, there was no one to play the roles of Messi, Griezmann and the others.
© 2021 AFP