Ramos nets brace as PSG dominate old rivals Marseille in Le Classique
The reigning champions made the brighter start, and broke the deadlock in the eighth minute through an increasingly familiar source. Achraf Hakimi scored for the third time in his last four PSG appearances with a brilliantly placed free-kick from the edge of the box.
That joy was weighed against the concern of seeing Kylian Mbappe being forced off with an ankle injury, but his withdrawal did not seem to affect Luis Enrique’s side here though, as Randal Kolo Muani scored a first goal for his new club, tapping home on the rebound after Hakimi’s initial long-range strike cannoned off the post.
Jacques Abardonado became the first coach to make his Ligue 1 managerial bow in a Le Classique fixture, and the caretaker boss would have been disappointed by his side’s abject first-half display. Their best chance of the half fell to Vitinha, who failed to find the target with his header from Jonathan Clauss's excellent first-time cross.
Any hopes of a Marseille comeback were effectively extinguished when Goncalo Ramos stepped up, or rather, stooped down to the plate in Mbappe's absence, meeting Ousmane Dembele’s wonderful cross with an equally impressive header two minutes after the restart.
Abardonado’s side were showing very little of the spirit exhibited from a 3-3 comeback draw against Ajax in midweek, and were meekly heading towards a first league defeat of the season.
Chancel Mbemba was one of the few players who could claim some credit from this woeful display, but he could not direct a close-range shot on target after being teed up by Leonardo Balerdi in the box.
There was still time for a fourth goal, as Kolo Muani made a surging run on the counter-attack to lay the ball on a plate for Ramos, who dinked the ball in beyond Pau Lopez in the 89th minute.
It was a chastening evening for the visitors, who extended a dismal record of only one win in 23 previous meetings against their fierce rivals. They drop down to seventh, while a fourth victory in Les Parisiens’ last five matches across all competitions lifts them into the top four, following an inconsistent start to their title defence.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain)
