Paris St Germain’s depressing begin to the 12 months continued once they have been knocked out of the French Cup final 16 by bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille on Wednesday.
Marseille, who had solely overwhelmed PSG twice because the capital aspect have been taken over by Qatar Sport Funding (QSI) in 2011, reached the quarter-finals due to an Alexis Sanchez penalty and a Ruslan Malinovskyi thunderbolt after Sergio Ramos’s first-half equaliser.
PSG have now misplaced 3 times already in 2023 and the Cup defeat comes lower than every week earlier than they tackle Bayern Munich of their Champions League last-16 first leg.
With out the injured Kylian Mbappe, who can even miss the Bayern conflict, PSG struggled and in keeping with captain Marquinhos, they’ll now have to “shut (their) mouth and work” to bounce again.
“They pressed excessive and we didn’t handle to interrupt the traces. It hurts as a result of it was a Cup sport in opposition to our nice rival,” Marquinhos added.
Marseille coach Igor Tudor revelled of their victory.
“Superb guys, they’re champions. It is superior for the membership,” he mentioned.
Marseille went forward on 31 minutes when Sanchez transformed a penalty after Cengiz Below had been introduced down by Ramos, giving the hosts a deserved benefit after a full of life begin.
Ramos, nevertheless, made up for his mistake as he headed house Neymar’s nook two minutes into first-half stoppage time, shortly after the Brazilian had hit the submit with an 18-metre strike.
The Velodrome stadium then got here to the boil when Malinovskyi, who joined on mortgage from Atalanta final month, beat Gianluigi Donnarumma with a vicious half-volley from simply exterior the field that went into the highest nook.
Ramos had a objective disallowed for offside in added time in a nail-biting finale as Marseille defended tooth and nail.
Elsewhere, Olympique Lyonnais knocked out Lille 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
AJ Auxerre have been overwhelmed 3-2 at house by Ligue 2 aspect Rodez, who superior after scoring with all three of their makes an attempt on the right track.
The draw for the quarter-finals might be made on Thursday.