It is the final minute of the duel between
Marseille
and
Paris Saint-Germain
for the round of 16 of the French Cup.
There is expectation in the packed Velodrome stadium because the locals win 2-1 and get into the next round, leaving their classic rival on the road.
The ball reaches
Lionel Messi
outside the area and he touches it with his right foot to Hakimi, who returns it to him.
Once again, the man from Rosario puts her aside while all his teammates are waiting for the cross inside the area.
Neymar has it now and he leaves it to the world champion.
And again a pass to the side.
He does not want
to throw
the Rosario into the pot, but he has no choice.
Nobody wants to play like him
.
The ball then goes in search of the saving head of
Sergio Ramos
and the figure of goalkeeper
Pao López
emerges .
He stays with the last one.
Thus,
Marseille advances and PSG suffers a new disappointment that looks a lot like a huge failure
.
The disappointment of Messi and PSG is the celebration of Olympique de Marseille.
Photo: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
Marseille was a fair winner because PSG is a team with the best footballer in the world,
Messi
, and the best striker in the world,
Kylian Mbappé
, who did not play due to injury, accompanied by
discreet players
, such as Fabián Ruiz, Danilo Pereira and Vitinha, the three from midfield.
The local deserved the classification widely:
they played as if it were a final
, pushed by their thousands of fans;
he fought it like it is fought in South America.
The team led by
Christophe Galtier
is now plagued by doubts, just one week before the crucial clash (Tuesday 14) against
Bayern Munich
for the round of 16 of the Champions League.
The history of the French classic, known in Europe as
Le Classique
, is particular .
The existing rivalry is now the product of a marketing action that, analyzed over time, seems to have gotten a bit out of hand due to the levels of intolerance registered in recent years.
For something the bars of the Parisian cast went to demonstrate (to intimidate, actually) Lionel Messi and company in the preview of the game
.
"Only victory"
, read the only flag they displayed.
A file photo of Bernard Tapie.
Photo: AP / Claude Paris,
Olympique de Marseille
is the most traditional club in France: it was founded in 1899. Its historical classic rival has been Saint-Étienne, a cast that entered an unstoppable debacle since the 1980s (currently playing in the second category).
Around those years, the eccentric businessman and actor
Bernard Tapie
He was the president of the southern French team and needed a rival to grow and do business.
A connoisseur of the media, Tapie did not hesitate to call the authorities of the Canal + television network, which in 1990 bought PSG, to start generating a football rivalry between Marseille and Paris, something like the South against the North.
The confrontation was born from the media in the 90's, it was transferred to the fans and it grew with great games.
The multimillion-dollar contracts arrived and also the championships of the Parisians, now managed by a Qatari consortium.
And since then no one doubts when it comes to determining what is the great classic of French football
.
How could it be otherwise, in the stands of the Velodrome stadium there was classic color and heat.
Marseille fans displayed scarves with the legend
"Anti Parisians"
in reference to the dispute between the two clubs.
It was surprising to see all the players standing up instead of sitting down, as if nervously living the game, which had
an electrifying start
.
If someone is wondering what it is like to drown the rival in someone else's field, they should watch the first 20 minutes of the match played in Marseille.
The cast of the Croatian
Igor Tudor
passed him over to that of Galtier, he did not let him leave from the bottom, he took him ahead and created many scoring situations for him.
The performance of the local team was overwhelming
.
Tudor did something dangerous: he left Neymar and Messi hand in hand with the central defenders and sent the rest to press almost at the height of the PSG defense.
But the strategy was positive because there was only one team on the field.
The Italian
Gianluigi Donnarumma
saved the team several times from him, until
Sergio Ramos
entered the trap of the Turkish
Cengiz Ünder
, who dropped into the area for the referee François Letexier to sanction the maximum penalty.
The contact was slight (there is no VAR in the Cup).
Little did Chilean
Alexis Sánchez
care , who defined the left post.
31 minutes went.
Until then, nothing had shown PSG, beyond some individual action by Messi, the most rebellious of the Parisians.
Neymar was noticed slow, who returned from an injury and left the number 10 shirt to Rosario.
He had already used it on January 31, 2022 in the duel against Nice for the round of 16 of the French Cup 2021/22, when he was eliminated.
In this tournament the numbering goes from 1 to 11.
It was the Brazilian who warned with a shot from outside, after receiving from La
Pulga
, which
crashed into the post
.
With the advantage, Marseille lowered the intensity.
It was known: it is not possible to play with that level of pressure for 90 minutes.
And at that break, Paris showed that they still have some hierarchy left.
Neymar executed a corner -which was not- and
Sergio Ramos went to look for the ball at the top of the small area and scored the goal that he has already scored dozens of times
.
The header was aesthetic and perfect.
In the second half, Marseille's attitude changed
: they waited a few meters back and let PSG handle the ball, which only found some clarity when Messi had it.
At minute 12, after a mistake by Neymar at the start, the Ukrainian
Ruslan Malinovskiy
hung it from the corner with a brutal left-footed shot.
The rest of the time served to see how much it costs PSG.
He had no ideas to achieve the tie.
Messi faded away with the passing of the minutes.
Those who entered were the juniors Warren Zaire-Emery and Hugo Ekitike, aged 16 and 20, respectively.
Thus, Paris Saint Germain lost and was left out, that team that was thought to be a dream and is currently living a nightmare.
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