Football Update: French Ligue 1- Paris St Germain win Le Classique
Paris St Germain won “Le Derby De France” with a 2-1 win against bitter rivals Olympique Marseilles at home in the French Ligue 1.
A great opening and a solid and gutsy 2nd half display from PSG helped Antoine Kombouare’s team defeat “les Phoceens” thanks to goals from Mevlut Erding and Guillaume Hoarau.
Les Parisiens came to life right at the start of the match and it was a calamitous error from Marseilles goalkeeper Steve Mandanda that gave Mevlut Erding an easy chance to draw first blood. Taye Taiwo’s misplaced pass came up to Nene, whose low drive was
spilled by Mandanda, as Turkish international Mevlut Erding pounced on the ball to open the scoring for Paris St Germain.
The crowd at Parc des Princes cheered the home side on and on as the visiting crowd was silenced after jeering the home fans at the start of the game. The noise around Parc des Princes grew even loud a few minutes later when Guillaume Hoarau scored the second
goal for “Le giants de Paris”.
Brazilian midfield maestro Nene has been the architect behind many goals scored by PSG this season and the versatile Brazilian was once again the chief protagonist as he lobbed a perfect pass over “les Phoceens’” defense towards Guillaume Hoarau who excellently
put the ball in the net.
The second goal made Paris St Germain smell blood as they piled up more pressure on the sorry Olympique Marseilles defence but Lucho Gonzalez calmed down the proceedings after benefitting from some woeful goalkeeping. A well-thought out ball from the Argentinean
was met by Andre-Pierre Gignac, who beat Sylvian Armand to the ball and put a cross into the box. It was very clear that the cross was never destined towards an Olympique Marseille player but PSG goalkeeper, Apoula Edel tried to avert the danger at the near
post, when there was no need of extra heroics and succeeded in guiding the ball in Lucho Gonzalez’s path, who gleefully put the ball in the net to pull one goal back for Marseilles.
It was a very open 1st half as both teams tried scoring more goals and got enough opportunities to do so. But in the opening minutes, PSG were looking the more threatening of the two.
In just the 2nd minute of the game, ex Barcelona midfielder, Ludovic Giuly’s drive was spooned away by Marseille goalkeeper Mandanda and at the other end, Gignac drew a great save from Apoula.
In the 50th minute, a slip from Sakho allowed Loic Remy a glorious chance but the Marseilles strikers’ cracking shot went over the bar. The start of the 2nd period was a very tense time for PSG fans as Olympique Marseilles piled on
the pressure to find a goal that would level the proceedings but Paris St Germain defence quickly settled down and laid a strong defensive web around Olympique Marseilles that won’t be untangled no matter what.
The defence protected goalkeeper Apoula so resolutely that the keeper was predominantly untested in the final stages of the match bar one save from Andre Ayew. But the goal never came for Marseilles as the final whistle was blown.
The win has now left the Ligue 1 table wide open as only 3 points now divide the top 8 teams. Paris St Germain are lying in third with 19 points, while Olympique Marseilles are in 4th place with 18 points and have a game in hand.
Man of the Match
Nene
The number 19 wearing midfielder has been instrumental for Paris St Germain throughout the season, his creativity has unarguably the reason for the goals for PSG, and in the derby de France, the Brazilian’s vision and creativity stretched the Marseille defence
to the limits as they found his passes hard to intercept. His beautiful lob over Taiwo let Guillaume Hoarau in as he scored the second goal for les Parisiens. The Brazilian teamed up with veteran Claude Makelele effectively and provided a solid midfield that
was hard to breakdown for Marseilles.
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