Paris Saint-Germain’s 20-game unbeaten streak in Le Classique was snapped on matchday two as Olympique de Marseille picked up a tense-filled 1-0 win.
PSG was able to get back Neymar and Angel Di Maria for the match following their coronavirus self-isolation periods. While PSG put together a much livelier performance compared to its loss to RC Lens, the side simply failed to muster up a single goal against Marseille.
Even with the loss, PSG manager Thomas Tuchel was relatively pleased with the performance from his side. After the match (via L’Equipe), Tuchel explained just why he is coming away from the fixture with a positive outlook.
“We played a good game, we had a great performance,” Tuchel said. “We controlled the whole game and everywhere on the pitch.”
As mentioned, Neymar and Di Maria returned to action in this fixture. Both players did not have a grand impact in the contest, as they combined for a mere one shot on target. Still, Tuchel believes that there was much to like from their showings against Marseille.
“They only had collective training in the legs,” Tuchel said. “They did very well. They had to play to gain pace. We need to let them play, right now. I didn’t expect my team to be capable of a game.”
This fixture ended in controversy as Neymar said that he was racially abused by Marseille player Alvaro Gonzalez.
“Neymar told me it was a racist insult,” Tuchel said. “I didn’t hear anything on the ground. Racism in our life, in all areas, sport, it must not exist.”
PSG will now look ahead to Wednesday’s fixture against Metz.
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