Paris Saint-Germain largely dominated Olympique de Marseille (3-0), its runner-up in the Ligue 1 standings, in a one-sided meeting at the Vélodrome, this Sunday, February 26. Impressive, the Mbappé-Messi connection shone and allowed the French striker to equal, at 24, Edinson Cavani’s record, becoming co-top scorer in the entire history of PSG with 200 goals.
The pass of two for OM or the hour of revenge for PSG? The leader of the French championship remained on a taste of unfinished business against his Marseille rival, after his defeat in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France (1-2), on February 8. This second confrontation in the space of a month could weigh heavily in the title race and benefit Olympique de Marseille, five points from first place, against a PSG in difficulty in this second part of the season.
It was the Marseillais who first packed the game, thanks to a good breakthrough from Nuno Tavares who found himself alone in the box, but took too long to adjust Donnarumma (12th) and ended up losing the ball after a good defensive return from Nuno Mendes. The Parisian camp then lost, through injury, Presnel Kimpembe, who collapsed on the lawn during a Marseille offensive before being evacuated on a stretcher (16th). The French international was coming back from injury, it will be unavailable until the end of the season “, finally told us his coach, after the match.
This could have marked the beginning of the nightmare for Christophe Galtier’s players, who then began to suffer more and more opposing chances and could have conceded the opener on a new attempt by Nuno Tavares (18th), which last unscrewing his shot. But after a Parisian counterattack, Kylian Mbappé, well served by Messi, only needed one chance to beat Pau López and open the scoring (25th, 1-0). A few minutes later, Éric Bailly thought to sound the revolt for his camp (28th) but his goal was refused by Clément Turpin due to a control of the hand.
In the process, Kylian Mbappé reversed the roles by serving Lionel Messi in turn with a superb pass between the legs of the Ivorian defender, who only had to push the ball into the Marseille cages (29th, 2-0 ). The Argentinian even narrowly missed the 3-0 goal (34th), but his shot from close range went well above the opposing goal. Mbappé (39th) and Marquinhos (40th) continued to undermine OM’s defense, without finding the net again. Dominated, Marseille remained without solution in the face of the effectiveness of the Parisian duo Mbappé-Messi.
PSG intractable against its dolphin
And things did not work out for the Phocaeans: as soon as the resumption, the French striker narrowly missed the double by taking the ball with his head, but who fled the opposing frame (52nd). He immediately corrected himself a few minutes later by scoring his 200th goal in the colors of PSG, perfectly served by Messi (55th, 3-0). Uninspired in attack, the Marseille players finally forced Donnarumma to deploy on a double save against Alexis Sánchez and Sead Kolašinac (65th), lacking realism.
PSG, well in place, then contented themselves with managing their result, without being really worried by the timid attempts of the Marseillais, like the unscrewed strike from Cengiz Ünder (78th) or the failed acrobatic recovery from Leonardo Balerdi (80th). On a reaction of pride, OM did not go far from shaking the Parisian nets following a good cross from Tavares taken over by Vitinha (90th), but Donnarumma once again distinguished himself to keep the score in the state.
With this success, the Parisians are reassured and consolidate their place at the top of Ligue 1 (60 points), now eight lengths ahead of their direct competitor. OM, who had beaten PSG in early February in the Coupe de France, were transparent on February 26 at the Vélodrome and were unable to find the solution to contain the Parisian attackers. Untenable, Kylian Mbappé scored twice and rose to the rank of co-top scorer in the history of PSG with 200 goals.