⚽️ ⚽️ Paris Saint-Germain 4, Olympique Marseille 0 ⚽️ ⚽️
Paris Saint-Germain 4, Olympique Marseille 0 (4- 0)
PSG renewed their rivalry against Olympique Marseille yesterday, as Ligue 1 play resumed.
Coming off a 5-0 blowout win over Club Brugges, PSG played very well again, dominating the game and scoring four goals by halftime, while maintaining the shutout win over Marseille in a scoreless second half.
French football superstar Kylian Mbappé scored two goals in the 32nd and 44th minutes.
Mauro Icardi also scored, opening the scoring in the 10th minute, and adding another goal in the 26th minute.
PSG remain in first atop the Ligue 1 standings, and now own a comfortable eight point lead over their closest rivals.
There was a time not so long ago when matches between PSG and l'OM were intense affairs that could feasibly go either way. In recent years, however, l'OM is lucky if they can salvage a draw against PSG, and they usually don't. This one was, for all intents and purposes, over by the half.
ReplyDeleteThank God for French soccer, because none of my teams here are giving me anything to get excited about: the Nets are so-so but nothing special, the Knicks are a joke, as are the Jets. And the Red Bulls failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs.
Getting back to PSG, Icardi really seems to have made their already potent attack that much harder to contain. Between Mbappé, Cavani, Neymar and Icardi, opposing defenses really have their hands full when all four of those guys are healthy.
A lot of old rivalries seem to fall by the wayside like that. Hardly anyone seems to care about the Pats-Broncos, which was all the rage a few years ago. Nobody cares much about the Giants-Pats rivalry, either, because New York would not be able to hold up their end of the bargain in recent seasons. And in baseball, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry gets a lot of attention, even when neither team is particularly great. But it receives huge attention when both teams are in the playoffs, and especially when they meet there, as they did last year. It comes and goes. Right now, PSG-Marseilles might not be great, but sooner or later, it probably will be again. Not sure if the Nets are supposed to be lousy. Thought that they were supposed to take a step or two up this season the way people were talking about them. Clearly though, those other New York area teams are huge disappointments, yes. Most local teams in general are. Even Yankees fans are disappointed this year, which is a rare thing, albeit one I do not really get choked up about.
DeleteGood point. The reason that most French clubs struggle to compete with PSG is that PSG was acquired by QSI (Qatar Sports Investments) back in 2011. Although PSG was already a "wealthy" club by French soccer standards simply by virtue of playing in the country's largest city and metropolitan area, they suddenly found themselves with WAY more money than any other club in Ligue 1. Rightly or wrongly, they've received a lot of criticism and animosity for that.
ReplyDeleteThe simple fact of the matter is that to have anything approaching a realistic chance of winning the Champions League, big business inevitably becomes part of the equation. Talent and ambition only get you so far in the world of professional sports. What I find odd is that many of PSG's "haters" have no objection to the role big money plays in the success of top clubs in England, Spain, Germany and Italy, and in fact often support those clubs. But when a French club does it, people suddenly find it objectionable and become indignant. PSG isn't any more likely to turn down lucrative offers from foreign investors than, say, Bayern Munich, Barcelona or Manchester City. Which means French clubs like Marseille, Lyon and Lille are going to have to think in terms of attracting big-name investors of their own, or forever be condemned to battle for second place in Ligue 1, and being long shots at best to make it past the second round of the Champions League.