Result: Marseille 0-2 Paris Saint-Germain
Date: 07 February 2021
Venue: Orange Vélodrome
Paris Saint-Germain moved to within three points of Ligue 1 leaders Lille after beating Olympique Marseille 2-0 in Le Classique on Sunday evening.
Marquinhos, Layvin Kurzawa, Marco Verratti, Alessandro Florenzi and Mauro Icardi recalled to the PSG line-up while Neymar returned from his suspension but had to settle for a place on the bench.
Mauricio Pochettino's charges had a perfect start after Mbappe opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a strike at the near after latching onto a through ball by Angel Di Maria, who picked up a knock and was replaced by Pablo Sarabia two minutes later.
The Parisians were 2-0 up in the 24th minute after a cross by Florenzi hit Icardi's back inside the box and looped over shot-stopper Steve Mandanda.
Leandro Paredes came close to adding a third goal for the visitors just after the half-hour mark with a first-time strike crashed against upright.
Marseille had their spark back in the early exchanges of the second stanza as Florian Thauvin came close to pulling a goal back six minutes after the break with a strike from range that was saved by goalkeeper Sergio Rico, who had to make another good save from the resultant corner to keep out Valere Germain's header.
Pochettino had the luxury of bringing on Neymar in the last 25 minutes, with the Brazilian taking the place of Icardi to keep the Marseille defence on their toes.
The game was opening up, with end to end attacks in the closing phase as Neymar failed to put away a cut-back by Sarabia in the last six minutes before Luis Henrique had a low shot saved by Rico in the bottom corner.
The game ended on a sour note as Dimitri Payet was shown a straight red card for a high boot on Verratti's chest for Marseille, as PSG held on for three points and a clean sheet.
