Paris knocked out of the Coupe de France

In the middle of a hellish schedule that has Paris Saint-Germain fighting on all fronts, the capital club found themselves in Marseille tonight for a do-or-die, Coupe de France last-16 tie and a direct encounter between the current two best teams on the national stage with, cruel as cup football is, only one place in the next round of the competition for the winner. Again without several of his key players, Christophe Galtier brought Neymar Jr back into the starting 11.

The first few bits of contact and movement set the tone straight away: Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain were going to go toe-to-toe with each other, be it tactically, physically or mentally. With the game seemingly starting at 1,000 miles an hour, the 22 players got stuck into each other in whatever way they could. In such a hostile environment, Les Parisiens' selflessness was severely tested, with Gianluigi Donnarumma being called into action on several occasions before one moment made his task even harder, as Cengiz Ünder won a penalty all on his own, which Alexis Sánchez duly converted (1-0, 31').

Les Parisiens certainly showed character in this game, creating danger through lightning-quick runs from Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi and Neymar Jr. Incidentally, it was the post that came to Pau López's rescue when the Brazilian took a shot at goal in the 40th minute, but Paris's increased momentum soon materialised into a deserved equaliser. From an inch-perfect corner, Sergio Ramos rose higher than his marker to fire in a powerful header and bring his side level just before half time (1-1, 45'+2).

With the game all square again, an equally tight second half awaited Les Rouge et Bleu, and whilst the electricity levels went up another notch on the pitch, it was the hosts who made the most of it by regaining the lead through Ruslan Malinovskyi's strike (2-1, 57'). Les Parisiens then decided to go all out. By creating wave after wave of attack, using substitutes Carlos Soler and Hugo Ekitike to probe further for a way through and almost literally camping in the Marseille half, their efforts may have paid off. Paris just lacked that little bit of luck, however, as demonstrated by Ramos, whose 91st-minute equaliser was frustratingly ruled out for offside.

Despite a suspenseful end to the game, Les Parisiens were unable to close the gap – a cruel outcome given the energy that they had expended. Les Rouge et Bleu will soon be back in action, though, starting with a trip to Monaco in Ligue 1 on Saturday.