Reactivated by the Marseille victory at the start of last season and then by the new impetus given by Jorge Sampaoli and the arrival of Lionel Messi in Paris, the Classic had not been so enticing for a long time. But despite a volcanic Velodrome stadium, Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain were held in check, Sunday, October 24, during the 11th day of Ligue 1 (0-0), without any of the two rivals do not strike a blow at each other.
Yet OM has evolved into superiority digital in the last 35 minutes of play, after causing the expulsion of Ashraf Hakimi (57th). While the hot situations multiplied on the goal of Keylor Navas, the Marseillais never took advantage. They will regret having lacked realism, like the failure of Boubacar Kamara, yet alone at the far post (77th), at the end of an evening concluded with a single shot on target (out of 15 attempted).
While all the conditions were met to witness an orgy of goals, the score remained irretrievably blocked. Each of the two teams had however managed to find the net in the first period. Twice, the intervention of the VAR brought the twenty-two actors back to earth. The Parisians were the first to exult, believing to open the scoring on a goal against his camp of Luan Peres, but an offside position from Neymar was retained. Same sanction a few minutes later for the Marseillais Pol Lirola, decisive center for Arkadiusz Milik (21st).
As if cooled by the capricious scenario, the actors never again made the nets tremble. The first period was that false joys, the second that of unfulfilled expectation. Marseille have failed to end their scarcity of victories against PSG, which has now been racing at the Vélodrome for ten years. For Paris, the draw is a lesser evil given the course of the evening.
2 – Marseille failed to win in 2 of the last 7 Ligue 1 matches in which their opponent got a red card when the score was 0-0, but it was each time against Paris on October 6 2013 (1-2) and tonight (0-0). Failure. #OMPSG pic.twitter.com/WYc4RM5sW2
– OptaJean (@OptaJean) October 24, 2021
The capital club lost Marco Verratti, affected in the liver in the first period, and will have to do without Achraf Hakimi during his next exit in Ligue 1 and perhaps beyond. Nevertheless, he is still comfortably installed at the head of the French championship, with a mattress of seven points ahead of its runner-up, Lens. Marseille is now fourth with one game less, ten points behind the Parisian leader.