Paris St Germain’s depressing begin to the yr continued after they had been knocked out of the French Cup final 16 by bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille on Wednesday.
Marseille, who had solely crushed PSG twice because the capital aspect had been taken over by Qatar Sport Investment (QSI) in 2011, reached the quarter-finals because of an Alexis Sanchez penalty and a Ruslan Malinovskyi thunderbolt after Sergio Ramos’s first-half equaliser.
PSG have now misplaced thrice already in 2023 and the Cup defeat comes lower than per week earlier than they tackle Bayern Munich of their Champions League last-16 first leg.
Without the injured Kylian Mbappe, who may even miss the Bayern conflict, PSG struggled and in line with captain Marquinhos, they’ll now must “shut (their) mouth and work” to bounce again.
“They pressed high and we did not manage to break the lines. It hurts because it was a Cup game against our great rival,” Marquinhos added.
Marseille coach Igor Tudor revelled of their victory.
“Amazing guys, they’re champions. It’s awesome for the club,” he mentioned.
Marseille went forward on 31 minutes when Sanchez transformed a penalty after Cengiz Under had been introduced down by Ramos, giving the hosts a deserved benefit after a energetic begin.
Ramos, nonetheless, made up for his mistake as he headed dwelling Neymar’s nook two minutes into first-half stoppage time, shortly after the Brazilian had hit the put up with an 18-metre strike.
The Velodrome stadium then got here to the boil when Malinovskyi, who joined on mortgage from Atalanta final month, beat Gianluigi Donnarumma with a vicious half-volley from simply exterior the field that went into the highest nook.
Ramos had a objective disallowed for offside in added time in a nail-biting finale as Marseille defended tooth and nail.
Elsewhere, Olympique Lyonnais knocked out Lille 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
AJ Auxerre had been crushed 3-2 at dwelling by Ligue 2 aspect Rodez, who superior after scoring with all three of their makes an attempt on the right track.
The draw for the quarter-finals shall be made on Thursday.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
