September 14 – France’s most hostile domestic football rivalry resulted in no fewer than five dismissals on Sunday and a claim from Neymar that he heard a racist slur as visitors Marseille upset reigning champions Paris St Germain 1-0.
The Brazilian made the accusation to the fourth official when walking off the pitch and later repeated the claim on social media.
Neymar was dismissed for a punch on Álvaro González and tweeted after the match that his “only regret” was not hitting the Marseille player in the face, having caught him on the back of the head.
A full-scale brawl broke out on the pitch in the last minute of stoppage time, forcing referee Jerome Brisard to send off Neymar in addition to PSG teammates Laywin Kurzawa and Leandro Paredes as well as Marseille’s duo of Benedetto and Jordan Amavi.
It was Marseille’s first league win over PSG since November 2011, condemning last season’s Champions League runners-up to their second straight league defeat after they suffered a 1-0 opening day setback at Lens. Once again PSG were without a string of first-team players because of Covid-19 positive tests.
The game was watched by a crowd of about 5,000 fans under coronavirus regulations and included 17 cards shown, a record for a Ligue 1 game since the turn of the century.
Afterwards Marseille head coach André Villas-Boas said commented: “There is no place for racism in football but I don’t think that was the case… we’ll have to look at it.”
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