All was going well for Paris Saint-Germain until Marco Verratti lost his head and put his side at a disadvantage.
In the first half, PSG struggled and truth be told, should have probably been down a goal. Verratti was introduced at the start of the second half and his substitution seemed to light a spark in PSG’s attack.
In the 51st minute, Neymar Jr. opened up the scoring when he chipped the Reims goalkeeper, and all seemed right in Paris. That was until a silly challenge on Junya Ito from Verratti got him sent off after just 10 minutes of action.
According to OptaJean, Verratti’s sending-off was the third fastest since 2006-07 with David Beckham and Layvin Kurzawa slightly ahead of him.
3 – Three fastest Paris' substitutes to be sent off in a Ligue 1 game since Opta collect these data (2006-07) :
🥇David Beckham after 9 minutes and 21 seconds
🥈Layvin Kurzawa after 12 minutes and 46 seconds
🆕Marco Verratti after 13 minutes and 15 secondsOff. #PSGSDR pic.twitter.com/fEUQMzX1Vl
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) January 29, 2023
That’s certainly not a list you want to be on and for a player like Verratti, it underscores the primary critique of his game, which is he is prone to rash challenges and silly mistakes that force him to miss important matches.
Verratti will miss PSG’s next match, but for supporters, they hope that this is finally out of his system and he’ll be ready to feature against FC Bayern Munich in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.
