Football News : Paris Saint Germain suffer a frustrating draw against minnows Reims

Paris Saint-Germain were defeated at home by Reims after an injury-time equaliser by Folarin Balogun startled the Parc des Princes.

The Ligue 1 leaders were not at their best, but they appeared in complete control when Neymar scored early in the second half following excellent work by Juan Bernat.

However, just as they appeared to be on their way to a comfortable victory, Marco Verratti was sent off. The experienced Italian came on as a half-time substitution for Vitinha, but he only lasted 11 minutes.

Reims were awarded a penalty after Marquinhos pinched Balogun’s heels inside the box, but VAR intervened and reversed the penalty since the forward was not offside.

It did, however, consider a Verratti challenge in the build-up. He was first booked, but VAR reversed that as well, and the referee instead brandished a red card.

NOT EVEN 10 MINUTES IN AND VERRATTI GOT A RED CARD NOOOOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/doeWsI5O0X

— #1 achraf hakimi stan (@uhleah) January 29, 2023

There were still chances, with PSG’s great players wreaking havoc, but the later the game progressed, the more Reims fancied themselves to steal something. That is precisely what they accomplished, with Balogun rounding Gianluigi Donnarumma and coolly slotting in an equalizer in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

“Overall we obviously can’t be satisfied with our performance. It is not a question of being worried but we need to get back to winning ways quickly and play much more as a team than we are at the moment. To concede a goal after 95 minutes with the number of experienced players we have, it is damaging for us in terms of the points dropped but it is also very surprising.”