Who was Man Of The Match? Pol Lirola
The first Le Classique for Messi this weekend was tougher than expected. The Argentine talisman remained scoreless although bagging braces in the midweek fixture. The showdown between Marseille and PSG ended in a stalemate goalless tie. The clash of two Argentinian managers was tight, especially on the defence line. The home side under Jorge Sampaoli deployed his regular unusual 3-2-4-1 formation with the transition to 4-2-3-1 while Mauricio Pocchettino, who considered to opt for a system with three centre back earlier, decided to stick to his usual 4-2-3-1 formation.
At the first half, PSG had more attempts to score. Yet, both Mbappe and Messi had a hard time breaking the deadlock. They had two chances each but missed out, most noticeably, a header from Messi in front of the goal. There were goals from both ends, an own goal from OM’s defense line and Arkadiusz Milik’s, but all were disallowed due to them being offside. At the second half, it was Marseille who had two clear chance to open the scoring but they lacked clinical finishing. They were even unable to take advantage from Achraf Hakimi’s expulsion. PSG remained solid at the back till the final whistle.
The man of the match was eventually awarded to the versatile wing back who could operate on both sides, Pol Lirola. He started the game as the left winger but then swapped position to the opposite side. The Spaniard was involved in both attacking through his crosses and defending by making tackles and interceptions.
Meanwhile, Le Parisien’s highest rate player in this fixture was not Messi, Mbappe or Neymar. It was the Brazilian defender, Marquinhos. He was superior at the back line and managed to keep OM men at bay by making six clearances plus one interception, and keep a cleansheet.
Lets check out his MOTM worthy stats:
Rating: 7.57
Minutes played: 90
Pass accuracy %: 81.1
Touches : 63
Dribbles: 5
Cross completion: 6
Key Passes: 2
Aerial duels won: 1
Tackles: 2
Interceptions: 2
MyMOTM 