Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) struggles in the Ligue 1 continued after being held to a 1-1 draw at home by Stade de Reims.
Folarin Balogun scored a late equaliser to cancel out Neymar’s goal as the hosts failed to take advantage of their challengers Lens’ dropped points against Troyes earlier.
Christophe Galtier rolled out his vaunted trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe for the first time this year but the opening 45 minutes were a tough watch as Reims sat back deep in a compact shape with PSG doing little to break them down.
Instead, it was Reims who threatened more through Marshall Munetsi, Alexis Flips and Balogun.
Galtier switched things up with the introduction of Marco Verratti which helped his team improve exponentially after the break. PSG eventually took the lead in the 51st minute when Messi’s shot fell into the path of Neymar who dribbled past Yehvann Diouf before poking the ball home.
The completion of the game, however, changed in the 59th minute when Verratti was sent off for a challenge on Junya Ito.
But the home side continued to dominate with Sergio Ramos going close with two headers and Achraf Hakimi having a goal disallowed for offside.
Just when PSG seemed to have played the game out, Balogun was sent through on goal in the sixth minute of added time and managed to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to rescue a point for his side.
PSG remain on top of the Ligue 1 table with 48 points but Lens remain in touching distance with 45 followed by Marseille in third with 43 points from 20 games.
The lacklustre gameplay also does not bode well for PSG’s champions league chances where they will face Bayern Munich when the competition resumes in February.
