PARIS – Paris St Germain’s mediocre run in Ligue 1 continued in a late 1-1 draw at home to Stade de Reims after being reduced to 10 men on Sunday.
Neymar scored early in the second half before Marco Verratti was shown a straight red card shortly after coming on as a substitute, with Folarin Balogun equalizing six minutes into stoppage time.
PSG, short on creativity, missed the chance to extend their Ligue 1 lead to five points after chasing pack RC Lens, Olympique de Marseille and Monaco also managed just one point on Saturday.
The capital side, who have lost two of their previous three games, have 48 points from 20 games with Lens on 45 and Marseille on 43 in the opening title race.
Reims are 11th with 26 points after extending their unbeaten run in Ligue 1 to 12 games.
“I have no words to describe this match. We have to change our mindset,” PSG midfielder Danilo Pereira said.
“We have to be able to suffer together. If we can’t do that it will be difficult for us.
PSG started with Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar for the first time this year, but delayed in the first half, which ended with a single shot as Reims, playing a compact defence, threatened through Marshall Munetsi, Alexis Flips and Balogun.
This prompted coach Christophe Galtier to replace Vitinha with Verratti in midfield and the Italian had an immediate impact as PSG finally applied some pressure.
In the 51st minute, Messi’s shot was deflected into the path of Neymar, who dribbled past Yehvann Diouf before slotting the ball home.
Verratti’s contribution, however, stopped after 14 minutes when he picked up a red card following a VAR review for a rough tackle on Junya Ito.
But PSG continued to dominate with Sergio Ramos going close to a double and Achraf Hakimi having a goal disallowed for offside.
It looked like the home side would escape with all three points, Balogun raced beyond Ramos before dribbling past Gianluigi Donnarumma and slotting the ball into the empty net for a deserved equaliser, his 11th league goal of the season.
Earlier, Olympique Lyonnais claimed a 2-0 win at AC Ajaccio for their first win in their last four league games thanks to goals from Johann Lepenant and Alexandre Lacazette.
Tempers flared after the final whistle as a scuffle erupted between staff members from both sides.
Lyon is ninth with 28 points.
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