It was quite a promising night in Marseille. The French most popular club and the only team to win the Champions League was hosting its biggest rival. The fans have been gathering at the town square since mid-day and the Marseille Ultras stand was packed 90 minutes before the game. Since the arrival of coach Roberto De Zerbi, Marseille has finally started playing good, attractive football, but what‘s more important, the team became competitive. Before the match they were third in Serie A, only three points less than PSG. So the hype was huge, the atmosphere fantastic but it all ended after only 20 minutes when the referee François Letexier sent off the Moroccan Amine Harit for apparent violent foul on Marquinos. Harit was going for the ball and never attended to foul PSG‘s captain but missed it and hit him in the stomach. A dubious call to say at least, but Letexier was stubborn in his decision never questioning it and ‘killed‘ the biggest French derby just like that. If Barcelona couldn‘t cope up with PSG in the Champions League last season with 10 men, nobody could expect De Zerbi‘s men to do something different: Marseille – PSG 0:3.Amine Harit a écopé d’un 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗢𝗡 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗘 sur cette action face au PSG. 🇫🇷❌Justifié ou pas selon-vous ? 🤔pic.twitter.com/jyvnRzyZ3r— ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛᴀᴋʜᴀʙ ғᴏᴏᴛ 🇲🇦 (@MountakhabFoot) October 27, 2024 Nobody could predict that the result would have been different if there was no red card, especially since the guests were leading after only six minutes due to new boy Neves‘ great strike, but to play against the Parisians with one man down was never going to end well for anybody, especially if the red card was dubious. The crowd and the songs were silenced by the ‘man in black‘ and the desperate fans could only watch in horror as their beloved team was being destroyed by the hated enemy. To make things worse, two Argentinians in the Marseille squad failed to communicate to each other, resulting in an own goal by captain Balerdi in the 29th minute. And when after several chances Barcola scored the third goal in the 40th minute, the crowd started to leave the stadium.Olympic Marseille haven’t been able to defeat Paris Saint Germain at their own ground for 13 years now, just as long as Qatar owners are it the helm of the Parisians. To make things worse, Olympique have even failed to score at the Velodrome against PSG since 2017! Marseille have lost 13 of their 44 home games against Paris SG in Ligue 1 (22 wins, 9 draws), including 8 times in the last 10 (2 draws). OM have not recorded more home defeats in the top flight against any other opponent but this one will hurt the most, since it killed the hope of the home fans after a promising start of the season.HT | Marseille 0-3 PSG:Some Marseille fans have seen enough. 🎥 @georgeboxall22 pic.twitter.com/YgiR6leJsA— Get French Football News (@GFFN) October 27, 2024 And while the score with the Parisians was already bad even before De Zerbi came in, one thing to which the Italian will have to pay great attention is the amount of red cards. Since he became the coach, the players are certainly fighting much more, and are in great spirit, but Harit’s red card was the fourth one for Marseille in the last six games in Ligue 1. Even if we don’t count this one due to obvious referee’s mistake, the number is serious and the Italian strategist will have to find a way to discipline his team much better. The score could have been even worse as the Parisian missed some excellent chances in the second half. Barcola, Dembele and Ruiz all had beautiful opportunities to humiliate their rival at the Velodrome but somehow missed them all.LIGUE 1 – MATCHDAY 9Friday Rennes – Le Havre 1-0 (0-0)/Gomez 54/SaturdayAngers – Saint-Etienne 4-2 (2-1)/Abdelli 7, Aholou 39, Niane 69 pen, Dieng 90+3 – Davitashvili 16 pen, 57/Reims – Brest 1-2 (1-2)/Okumu 29 – Faivre 4 pen, Balde 18/Lens – Lille 0-2 (0-0)/David 90+8 pen, Bayo 90+11/Sunday Olympique Lyon – Auxerre 2-2 (1-0)/Mikautadze 45, 62 – Diomande 47, Traore 72/Montpellier – Toulouse 0-3 (0-2)/Aboukhal 5, 8, King 27/Nice – Monaco 2-1 (1-1)/Guessard 45, Laborde 71 – Embolo 39/Strasbourg – Nantes 3-1 (1-0)/Santos 17, 57, Bakwa 73 – Guirassy 83/Olympique Marseille – PSG (0-3)/Neves 7, Balerdi 29 (og), Barcola 40/
